PROPERTY    OF  X 

•C.KO.ji.    WORCESTER    I 


THE  WAR  WITH  MEXICO  REVIEWED. 


THE 


WAR    WITH    MEXICO 


REVIEWED. 


BY 

ABIEL    ABBOT    LIVERMORE 


SEVENTH    THOUSAND. 


BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED   BY   THE   AMERICAN   PEACE   SOCIETY. 
1850. 


Entered  ace  o  riling  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1850,  by 

JOHN  HELD,  TREAS.  AM.  PEACK  Soc., 
In  the  Clerk's  OfTiec  of  the  District  Court  of  Massachusetts. 


1'iuxTEi)  I;Y 

AI5NEK    roKUES,    37    CO  KM  1  IT. L. 


NOTE. 

The  Committe  of  Award,  consisting  of  the  Hon.  SIMON  GREEN- 
LEAF,  LL.  D.,  the  Rev.  WILLIAM  JENKS,  D.  D.,  and  the  Rev.  BARON 
STOW,  D.  D.,  adjudged  to  the  following  work  the  Premium  of  FIVK 
HUNDRED  DOLLARS  offered  by  the  American  Peace  Society  for  "  the 
best  Review  of  the  Mexican  War  on  the  principles  of  Christianity, 
and  an  enlightened  statesmanship." 

GEORGE  C.  BECKWITH, 

Cor.  Sec.  Am.  Peace  Society. 


Vlii  PREFACE. 

its  auspices.  War,  the  great  social  wrong,  like  idolatry, 
the  great  spiritual  injury,  must  fall  in  due  time  before 
the  progress  of  the  Gospel.  To  doubt  this  result,  seems 
to  presume  that  the  Prince  of  Peace  has  come  in  vain, 
and  that  finite  creatures  can  eventualy  frustrate  the 
plan  of  the  Infinite  Creator.  Meanwhile,  for  the  justi 
fication  of  the  humble  labors  of  any  individual  or  society 
in  so  stupendous  a  regeneration,  it  is  enough  to  say,  that 
God  works  by  means  and  by  men.  When  was  the 
lowest  whisper  of  prayer  unheeded,  or  the  faintest  effort 
unblessed,  that  ran  parallel  with  his  benevolent  purposes 
and  his  eternal  laws  ? 

The  highest  ambition  of  the  writer  will  be  amply 
satisfied,  if  these  pages  shall  contribute  to  swell  in  a 
small  degree  the  rising  tide  of  public  opinion  in  favor 
of  Peace,  and  awaken  a  deeper  abhorrence  for  the 
bloody  and  needless  arbitration  of  the  sword. 

A.  A.  LIVERMORE. 

KEENE,  N.  H.,  September  11,  1849. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I.  Pagea. 

INTRODUCTION 1-5 

CHAPTER  II. 

CIRCUMSTANCES     PREDISPOSING     TO    THE    WAR    WITH 

MEXICO  5-18 

CHAPTER  IIL 

THE   CHIEF   MOTIVE   OF   THE   WAR 13-32 

CHAPTER  IV. 

PRETEXTS   FOR   WAR 32-39 

CHAPTER   V. 

PREPARATION    OF   WAR 40-50 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   BEGINNING   AND   ENDING    OF   THE    WAR,  ARGUMENTS 

FOlt   PEACE  51-65 


CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER   VII. 

THE    SAME    SUBJECT    CONTINUED 66-81 

CHAPTER  VIH. 

THE  EXPENDITURES   OF   THE   WAR 82-102 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  DESTRUCTION   OF  HUMAN   LIFE  ....       102-114 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE   HOSPITAL  AND   THE   BATTLE-FIELD     .  .  .  .115-122 

CHAPTER  XL 

LEGITIMATE   BARBARITIES   OF   THE   WAR  .  .  .      122-139 

CHAPTER  XII. 

ILLEGITIMATE   BARBARITIES 139-156 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

MILITARY  EXECUTIONS 156-161 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

ILLEGALITIES 162-167 

CHAPTER  XV. 

POLITICAL  EVILS   OF   THE   WAR  AT  HOME  .  .  .      168-179 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

POLITICAL  EVILS    OF    THE    WAR   ABROAD  179-187 


CONTENTS.  Xl 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE  NEW  TERRITORIES 187-199 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

NEW   SCHEMES   OF   INVASION   AND  ANNEXATION          .  .      200-203 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

MILITARY  GLORY 204-208 

CHAPTER  XX. 

THE   TRUE   DESTINY   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES  .  .      208-212 

CHAPTER  XXL 
THE  STATESMAN'S  RETRIBUTION       .....    213  -  219 

CHAPTER  XXIL 

WAR  MAXIMS 219-227 

CHAPTER  XXHL 

MARTIAL  LITERATURE 227-230 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

WAR  AND   THE   FIRE-SIDE 231  -  240 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

THE  VICES   OF  THE   CAMP 240-245 

CHAPTER  XXVL 

THE  WAR-SPIRIT  AND  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST      .  •    245-254 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

THE    SAME    SUBJECT    CONTINUED 255-258 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

LESSONS    OF    THE   AVAR 259-269 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

SUBSTITUTES   FOR  TTAIi. 269-277 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

PACIFICATION   OF   T1IE   "WORLD 277-281 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

CONCLUSION 281-287 

APPENDIX. 

THE   HISTORICAL   EVENTS   OF   THE   WAR     .  .  .  .287    S&J. 


THE  WAR  WITH  MEXICO  REVIEWED. 


CHAPTER   I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

"  The  principles  of  true  politics  are  merely  those  of  morality  en 
larged."  —  BURKE. 

HISTORY  has  assumed,  under  the  light  of  the  Gospel,  a 
new  value.  It  is  no  longer  regarded  as  owing  its  chief  in 
terest  to  its  royal  genealogies,  or  its  bloody  record  of  battles. 
It  is  beginning  to  be  understood,  that  the  Providence  of  God 
is  manifested  through  the  rise  and  fall  of  nations.  The  ac 
tors  in  the  scenes  of  the  past  have  been  the  agents  of  a  high 
er  power  than  they  themselves  recognized.  "  The  hoary- 
registers  of  time"  are  the  map  of  the  grand  march  of  human 
ity.  To  draw  the  moral  of  history,  therefore,  becomes  of 
equal  importance  to  the  office  of  narrating  its  events.  If  it 
be  "  philosophy  teaching  by  example,"  it  becomes  a  question 
of  the  first  importance  to  learn  what  the  examples  teach ; 
what  warning  of  evil,  what  encouragement  to  hope ;  what 
lessons  for  rulers,  or  for  the  people.  And  since  the  light  has 
shone  down  out  of  Heaven  upon  the  dark  confusion  of  hu- 

1 


2  INTRODUCTION. 

mail  affairs,  we  can  discern  a  meaning  in  the  most  perplex 
ing  passages,  and  trace  a  guiding  clew  through  labyrinths 
more  intricate  than* that  of  Crete. 

In  harmony  with  the  comprehensive  use,  thus  briefly  in 
dicated,  of  civil  and  political  history,  the  American  Peace 
Society  wished  to  subject  the  late  war  between  the  United 
States  and  Mexico  to  the  crucible  of  a  philosophical  and 
Christian  analysis.  The  friends  of  peace  have  often  drawn 
their  arguments  and  illustrations  in  vindication  of  their  holy 
cause  from  Herodotus  and  Thucydides,  or  Hume  and  Rob 
ertson  ;  but  unhappily  they  have  now  been  provided  with  a 
fearful  strife  nearer  home,  whose  fields  of  blood  are  hardly 
yet  dry,  and  whose  wounds  are  still  ghastly,  from  which  they 
may  teach  the  evils  of  international  war.  And  now  the  thun 
der  of  artillery  and  the  slirieks  of  the  wounded  having  died 
away,  they  wish  to  repeat  again  in  mournful  recitative, 
though  it  be  but  with  a  jarring  human  tongue,  the  angel's 
sweet  hymn,  "  on  earth  peace,  good  will  toward  men." 

The  language  of  the  schedule,  issued  by  the  Society  in 
February,  1847,  was  as  follows :  "  The  Keview  should  be 
written  without  reference  to  political  parties,  and  present 
such  a  view  of  the  subject  as  will  commend  itself,  when  the 
hour  of  sober  and  candid  reflection  shall  come,  to  the  good 
sense  of  fair'-minded  men  in  every  party  and  in  all  sections 
of  the  country.  The  war,  in  its  origin,  its  progress,  and  the 
whole  sweep  of  its  evils  to  all  concerned,  should  be  reviewed 
on  the  principles  of  Christianity  and  of  enlightened  states 
manship;  showing  especially  its  waste  of  treasure  and  Jiu- 
man  life  ;  —  its  influence  'upon  the  interests  of  morality  and 
religion,  —  its  inconsistency  with  the  genius  of  our  republi 
can  institutions,  as  well  as  with  the  precepts  of  our  re 
ligion,  and  the  spirit  of  the  age,  —  its  bearings  immediate  and 
remote,  on  free,  popular  governments  here  and  tlirough  t/ie 
world  ;  —  how  its  evils  might  have  been  avoided  ivith  better  re 
sults  to  both  parties  ;  —  and  what  means  may  and  should  be 


INTRODUCTION.  3 

adopted  Tyy  nations  to  prevent  similar  evils  in  future.  Our  sole 
aim  is  to  promote  the  cause  of  permanent  peace,  by  turning 
this  Avar  into  effectual  warnings  against  resorts  to  the  sword 
hereafter." 

Here,  then,  is  a  distinct  purpose,  avowed  at  the  outset,  to 
use  the  Mexican  AYar  as  an  argument  for  the  cause  of  peace ; 
to  "  beat  its  swords  into  ploughshares,  and  its  spears  into 
pruning  hooks,"  for  the  culture  of  humane  and  Christian  sen 
timents.  Without  following  the  above-mentioned  order  of 
topics,  with  rigid  accuracy,  it  will  then  be  the  aim,  both  of 
our  logic  and  our  rhetoric,  in  this  Essay,  to  draw  the  moral 
of  this  event  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  to  employ  it  as 
a  powerful  instrument,  furnished  by  our  opponents  them 
selves, —  if  peace  have  any  opponents,  —  to  scatter  the  illu 
sions  of  military  glory,  and  to  reveal  the  incalculable  evils  of 
international  war.  We  have  great  advantages  for  the  ac 
complishment  of  this  purpose,  in  the  very  recent  occurrence 
of  the  contest ;  the  voluminous  public  documents,  correspon 
dence,  and  speeches ;  the  numerous  memoirs,  sketches,  and 
letters,  written  by  eye  and  ear-witnesses  and  actors  in  the 
field  and  the  camp  ;  and  in  able  and  eloquent  essays,  for  and 
against  the  war,  which  have  been  laid  before  the  public  dur 
ing  its  progress.  Much  of  the  history  of  the  blood-stained 
past  has  been  written  arid  sung  by  the  advocates  of  war,  the 
bards  and  historians  of  the  world's  boisterous  childhood,  who 
have  showered  the  richest  gifts  of  their  genius  upon  those 
tierce  heroes,  who  were  ready  to 

"  "vVadc  through  slaughter  to  ;i  throne, 
And  shut  the  ^atcs  of  mercy  on  mankind." 

But  the  time  has  now  come  to  examine  the  subject  of  war  in 
all  its  aspects  and  all  its  issues  ;  to  decompose  its  glittering 
fabric  of  glory  into  its  constituent  elements  ;  and  while  it  is 
'•  fresh  and  gory,"  to  arrest  the  fugitive  attention  of  the  pub 
lic,  and  confine  it  to  the  solemn  lessons  of  Providence  and 


4  INTRODUCTION. 

Revelation.  And  he,  whose  pen  is  moved  by  pulses  from  a 
Christian  heart,  will  not  fear  to  question  any  customs,  usages, 
or  laws  pertaining  to  this  relic  of  barbarism,  according  to  the 
plain  and  positive  precepts  of  Christ,  and  the  whole  spirit 
of  his  religion.  Such  is  the  subject,  plan  and  promise 
of  the  following  pages ;  the  fulfilment  must  rest  with  Him, 
who  deigns  to  be  a  co-worker  with  the  humblest  of  his  crea 
tures  for  good. 

In  the  investigation  of  this  war,  we  would  rise,  as  suggest 
ed  in  the  circular  of  the  Society,  far  above  the  tempestuous 
region  of  partisan  politics,  and  the  extravagances  of  zealous, 
but  injudicious  reformers.  We  would  speak,  as  men  bound 
by  the  laws  of  natural  justice,  and  as  Christians  bowing  to 
the  benevolent  precepts  of  Christ,  as  the  ultimate  authority 
in  every  question  of  public,  not  less  than  of  private  morals. 
One  of  the  vices  of  the  times  is  headlong  ultraism ;  —  the  ul- 
traism  of  conservatism,  as  well  as  that  of  radicalism.  Impa 
tient  of  halves,  men  "  go  the  whole,"  to  use  the  national 
phrase.  It  is  not  a  day  of  qualification,  or  moderation.  Par 
ties  tolerate  none  in  their  ranks,  that  will  not  ride  the  pen 
dulum  of  their  peculiar  notions  to  the  ^utmost  point  of  its 
swing.  The  very  nature  and  form  of  social  progress,  devel 
oped  in  our  country,  predisposes  us  to  this  fierce  intolerance. 
The  rush  and  eagerness  of  our  daily  life,  the  earnest  enter 
prise  that  is  busy  all  over  the  land,  that  plies  every  tool  and 
machine,  spins  along  the  lines  of  city  intercourse,  pours  forth 
into  forests  and  prairies,  skims  every  river  and  lake,  and  ca 
reers  over  every  ocean,  in  the  pursuit  of  wealth,  naturally 
inch'ne  our  people  to  adopt  very  decided  opinions  upon  every 
subject.  They  act  under  a  momentum  that  easily  throws 
them  into  extremes.  We  would  guard  against  this  weakness. 
We  would  speak  "  the  words  of  truth  and  soberness."  How 
ever  severe  may  be  our  judgment  of  the  late  contest  between 
the  United  States  and  Mexico,  it  shall  be  a  censure  within 
the  bounds  of  reason  and  religion,  and  therefore  commending 


CIRCUMSTANCES  PREDISPOSING  TO  THE  WAR.  5 

itself  to  whatever  there  may  be  of  reason  and  religion  in 
the  minds  of  our  readers  ;  and  all  the  more  severe  because 
springing  not  from  wholesale  and  indiscriminate  abuse,  but 
from  the  simple  and  eternal  principles  of  right.  It  requires 
no  far-fetched  proofs  or  strained  positions  ;  no  fanatic  ap 
peals  or  ultra  doctrines,  to  brand  the  war  in  question  with 
an  adequate  seal  of  infamy.  For  its  own  history  is  its  suf 
ficient  exposure.  Its  origin,  causes,  purposes,  and  results 
are  truth-telling  witnesses  against  it.  To  be  abhorred  and 
condemned,  it  needs  but  to  be  recorded  and  reviewed. 


CHAPTER    II. 

CIRCUMSTANCES     PREDISPOSING     TO     THE    WAR    WITH 
MEXICO. 

"  If  that  the  Heavens  do  not  their  visible  spirits 
Send  quickly  down  to  tame  these  vile  offences, 
'T  will  come.        *        *        * 
Humanity  must,  perforce,  prey  on  itself, 
Like  monsters  of  the  deep."  —  SHAKSPEARE. 

No  event  in  history  has  an  independent  and  solitary  exist 
ence.  All  its  facts  may  be  said,  in  one  sense,  to  be  the 
effect  of  all  that  precedes,  and  the  cause  of  all  that  follows. 
For  history  is  not  so  much  a  chain,  as  a  network.  Its  trans 
actions  do  not  obey  a  law  of  simple  succession,  but  of  intri 
cate  combination.  The  working  out  of  the  great  designs  of 
Providence  is  furthered  by  a  diversity  of  agencies,  —  some 
in  conflict,  and  others  in  alliance.  We  can,  therefore,  under- 
Btand  historically  nothing  by  itself.  To  know  even  one 

1* 


CIRCUMSTANCES    PREDISPOSING    TO    THE    WAR. 

nation  truly  and  thoroughly,  we  need  to  know  all  nations. 
Viewed  according  to  this  judgment,  the  history  of  mankind 
is  a  unity,  and  its  truest  designation  is  universal. 

This  general  principle  holds  true,  in  its  application  to  the 
important  matter  under  review.  To  comprehend  it  aright, 
we  need  to  have  been  diligent  students  of  the  past  as  well 
as  the  present.  It  involves,  especially,  the  great  questions 
of  European  colonization  in  America,  in  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries,  under  the  English,  or  Protestant,  and 
Continental,  or  Catholic  forms,  and  their  respective  issues 
down  to  this  moment. 

In  truth,  far  back  even  beyond  the  third  and  fourth  gene 
ration,  the  causes  have  been  in  process  to  predispose  us  to 
this  Mexican  crisis,  and,  if  prudence  and  wisdom  did  not 
govern  both  the  aggrieved  and  the  aggressor,  to  plunge  us  in 
a  brute  strife.  This  is  no  sudden  leap.  This  is  no  mine 
sprung  without  warning.  On  both  sides,  the  elements  have 
been  silently  brewing,  through  many  years,  for  the  issues  of 
to-day.  As  the  cannons  that  have  mowed  down  ranks  of 
living  men,  and  the  deadly  bombs  that  have  crashed  through 
homes  of  affection,  have  in  many  cases  been  lying  rusty  and 
ancient,  the  relics  of  days  gone  by ;  so  have  the  causes  that 
set  these  horrid  engines  in  operation  been  long  accumulat 
ing  in  the  arsenal,  so  to  speak,  and  lying  unused,  until  the 
fatal  imprudence  or  passion  of  one  or  both  parties  has  sum 
moned  them  into  action. 

To  specify  a  leading  cause,  we  would  advert  to  what  Sir 
Robert  Peel  has  called,  in  the  British  Parliament,  "  a  devel 
opment  of  military  ambition  in  the  United  States;"  in  one 
sense,  both  cause  and  effect  of  the  war  with  Mexico.  The 
attentive  student  of  history  will  be  at  no  loss  to  trace  the 
origin  and  growth  of  this  fearful  passion.  For  the  lime  we 
have  existed  as  a  people,  we  have  been  no  sluggards  in  the 
use  of  the  sword.  The  old  French  and  Indian  wars  occu 
pied  our  great  grandfathers ;  the  Revolution  our  grand- 


CIRCUMSTANCES    PREDISPOSING    TO    THE    WAR.  7 

fathers;  the  war  of  1812  our  fathers;  and  Creek  and  Che 
rokee  expatriations,  and  Black  Hawk,  Patriot,  Seminole,  and 
Mormon  skirmishes  their  sons.  The  martial  spirit  is  always 
a  tiger,  and  we  have  given  the  tiger  too  much  room  and 
freedom.  In  fact,  the  Temple  of  Peace  has  not  remained 
long  shut  during  our  national  existence.  Though  most  of 
our  wars  have  been  small  ones,  that  circumstance  has  not 
prevented  their  imbuing  a  large  portion  of  our  citizens  with 
the  ambition  of  arms.  It  is  one  of  our  maxims,  that  "  in 
time  of  peace  we  should  prepare  for  war."  The  whole 
population  are  armed ;  there  is  not,  probably,  a  house  in  the 
country,  unless  it  belong  to  a  Quaker  or  a  Non-resistant, 
without  its  sword,  pistol,  musket,  or  rifle.  The  expenses  of 
our  army  and  navy,  even  in  time  of  peace,  have  always  ex 
ceeded,  by  many  millions,  the  maximum  of  the  civil  list 
Hence  there  is  always  existing  a  large  profession  of  men, 
whose  seeming  interest  it  is  to  have  their  country  engaged 
in  war ;  for  then  every  expenditure  in  this  direction  is  enor 
mously  increased ;  active  service  creates  vacancies  and  accel 
erates  promotions  ;  and  the  prize  money  of  war  is  better 
than  the  earnings  of  industry. 

But  other  causes,  besides  those  above  noted,  have  contri 
buted  to  awaken  in  "Young  America"  the  aspiration  for 
military  renown.  General  literature,  whether  in  the  form 
of  poetry,  oratory,  or  history,  and  whether  imported  or 
domestic,  has  always  thrown  the  decisive  preponderance  of 
its  influence  into  the  war  scale.  Republicans  have  wished 
to  show  that  they  were  equal  to  the  performance  of  any  feat 
that  king  or  kaiser  ever  dared,  or  that  minstrel  ever  sung. 
It  has  been  openly  avowed  on  the  floor  of  Congress,  by  the 
most  distinguished  men  of  the  country,  that  the  time  had 
arrived  for  us  to  do  "  some  great  thing,"  to  let  the  Old 
World  know  that  \y,e  were  not  the  cowards  or  sluggards 
they  might  otherwise  suppose  us  to  be.  As  if  it  were  not 
well  known  in  every  land,  from  north  to  south,  that  the 


8  CIRCUMSTANCES    PREDISPOSING   TO    THE    WAR. 

United  States  was  rising  to  be  a  leading  power  in  the  earth  ; 
as  if  two  wars  with  the  British  monarchy,  in  which  we  cer 
tainly  were  not  worsted,  were  not  sufficient  witnesses  to  our 
valor,  without  seeking  a  quarrel  with  a  rent  and  distracted 
nation  to  show  our  republican  manhood;  as  if  the  good 
opinion  of  the  crumbling,  bankrupt,  starving,  war-taxed,  and 
groaning  kingdoms  of  Europe  were  to  be  purchased  at  the 
fearful  price  of  one  drop  of  human  blood  unrighteously 
shed.  In  the  recent  tremendous  agitations,  that  have  swept 
like  a  resistless  tide  over  that  continent,  the  example  of 
republican  America  has  been  loudly  and  cheeringly  quoted ; 
—  would  that  we  were  more  worthy  of  the  title  of  the  ban 
ner  republic !  —  but  what  has  been  quoted  for  imitation,  for 
inspiration,  for  justification,  by  the  masses  struggling  for 
their  inalienable  rights,  has  not  been  our  wars,  our  slave 
ries,  our  inconsistencies,  but  our  equal  rights,  our  bread 
enough  and  to  spare,  our  wise  institutions,  our  world-re 
nowned  enterprise  and  industry,  and  our  unrivalled  pros 
perity. 

Again ;  the  pride  of  race  has  swollen  to  still  greater  in 
solence  the  pride  of  country,  always  quite  active  enough 
for  the  due  observance  of  the  claims  of  universal  brother 
hood.  The  Anglo-Saxons  have  been  apparently  persuaded 
to  tliink  themselves  the  chosen  people,  the  anointed  race  of 
the  Lord,  commissioned  to  drive  out  the  heathen,  and  plant 
their  religion  and  institutions  in  every  Canaan  they  could 
subjugate.  The  idea  of  a  "destiny,"  connected  with  this 
race,  has  gone  far  to  justify,  if  not  to  sanctify,  many  an  act 
on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic ;  for  which  both  England  and 
the  United  States,  if  nations  can  be  personified,  ought  to 
hang  their  heads  in  shame,  and  weep  scalding  tears  of  re 
pentance.  When  they  can  produce  any  Mosaic  commission 
from  the  Almighty  King  of  kings,  to  diffuse  the  gospel  of 
peace  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  or  the  benign  arts  and 
sciences  of  a  civilized  age  by  the  brute  force  of  an  earlier 


CIRCUMSTANCES    PREDISPOSING    TO    THE    WAR. 

period,  it  will  be  quite  time  enough  to  consider  their  author 
ity.  Meanwhile,  the  inquiry  presses  powerfully,  are  these 
same  destined  Anglo-Saxon  missionaries  so  immaculate  in 
their  character,  so  wise  in  their  great  national  ideas,  and  so 
unbendingly  true  in  their  realization  of  them,  that  they  have 
earned  a  title  or  authenticated  "a  divine  right"  to  conquer 
and  colonize  the  rest  of  God's  earth  ?  And  when  on  one 
shore  we  have  taken  the  guage  of  Ireland's  woes  and 
wrongs,  and  the  oppressions  of  the  factories,  collieries,  ships, 
and  colonies  of  England ;  and,  on  the  other  shore,  recalled 
the  repudiation  of  State  debts,  the  slavery  of  three  millions 
of  immortal  beings,  and  the  endless  wrongs  of  the  natives 
of  the  soil,  which  we  so  proudly  tread,  to  enumerate  no 
other  crimes  ;  —  we  shall  admit,  with  great  reluctance,  that 
either  of  the  gigantic  progenies  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race 
has  established  by  past  wisdom,  fidelity,  or  consistency,  a 
presumptive  title  to  be  appointed  guardian  over  the  decrepid 
races  of  the  Eastern  or  Western  hemisphere.  They  may, 
doubtless,  plead  the  right  of  might;  but  that  is  far  from 
being  the  might  of  right.  They  may  use  the  old  appeal, 
ultima  ratio  regum,  the  ultimate  resort  of  kings,  and  alas ! 
we  now  see,  of  republics  too ;  but  so  long  as  they  have  no 
more  divine  method  than  that,  of  civilizing  the  savage,  and 
Christianizing  the  heathen,  they  are  held  down  by  an  eter 
nal  gravitation  to  the  vulgar  level  of 

"Macedonia's  madman  and  the  Swede." 

True,  they  possess  arts  and  arms,  but  there  are  even  more 
potent  agents  than  these  in  the  progress  of  humanity.  Have 
we  read  the  history  of  sixty  centuries,  and  failed  to  learn 
even  the  alphabet  of  the  sublime  lessons  she  would  teach,  — 
that  truth,  love,  righteousness,  great  and  heavenly  principles 
only,  can  worthily  and  successfully  preside  over  the  pro 
cesses  of  human  improvement?  It  is  still  an  unsettled 


10         CIRCUMSTANCES    PREDISPOSING    TO    THE    WAR. 

question,  whether  the  Crusades,  the  Norman  conquest,  or  the 
wars  of  the  old  French  Revolution,  did  more  evil  or  good. 
But  there  is  not  the  glimmer  of  a  doubt  that  the  mariner's 
compass,  the  art  of  printing,  the  steamboat,  the  railroad,  and 
the  telegraph,  have  been  ministers  of  good  to  mankind. 
We  must  be  dull  scholars  in  the  Christian  lore,  and  the 
veriest  laggards  in  the  work  of  the  present  age,  if  we  still 
cherish  the  old  folly  of  ambition  and  vainglory  that  has 
demonized  the  nations  of  the  dead.  But  not  to  dwell  longer 
upon  considerations  that  will  come  up  again  in  another  con 
nection,  none  can  be  blind  to  the  pride  of  race  as  one  of  the 
causes  that  has  prompted  the  hostilities  in  Mexico. 

European  emigration,  too,  has  had  its  effect.  Hundreds 
of  thousands,  with  all  their  old-world  ideas,  unbaptized  into 
the  spirit  of  liberty,  except  it  be  as  license,  have  been  trans 
planted  into  the  vast  regions  of  the  Middle  States,  the 
West  and  South- West.  They  have  been  accustomed  to  the 
bloody  dramas  of  Europe,  and  they  have  supposed  that  the 
same  must  be  acted  over  again  in  America.  Far  be  it  from 
us  to  take  up  any  slanderous  speech  against  our  emigrant 
brethren,  many  of  whom  have  shown  themselves  capable  of 
understanding  the  rights  and  discharging  the  obligations  of 
freemen,  and  have  added  much  to  the  wealth,  intelligence, 
and  morality  of  their  adopted  country.  But  it  is  well  known 
that  no  inconsiderable  part  of  the  American  army  has  con 
sisted  of  foreigners.  They  have  been  warmly  commended 
as  showing,  by  their  readiness  to  enlist,  and  espouse  our 
quarrels,  their  enthusiasm  in  the  cause  of  liberty,  and  fidelity 
to  their  land  of  refuge.  But  the  lover  of  peace  will  see,  at 
the  bottom  of  this  fair-seeming,  the  dangerous  element  of 
military  habits,  acquired  during  the  turbulent  scenes  of  the 
last  fifty  years,  transferred  from  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  the 
Elbe,  and  the  Shannon,  to  those  of  the  Ohio,  the  Missouri, 
and  the  Colorado.  The  roots  of  the  old  war-encumbered 
civilization,  —  torn  and  broken,  indeed,  but  possessing  an 


CIRCUMSTANCES    PREDISPOSING   TO    THE    WAR.         11 

unyielding  tenacity  of  life, —  are  set  out  in  the  rich  soil  of 
the  American  prairies.  Whether  they  live  and  bear  their 
bitter  fruits,  or  wither  and  die,  is  for  the  friends  of  peace, 
under  God,  to  decide.  The  great  valley  of  the  West  may 
become  the  hot-bed  of  war;  and  nothing  but  a  wide  and 
early  dissemination  of  the  pacific  principles  of  the  Gospel, 
by  books,  tracts,  lectures,  and  conversation,  can  prevent  our 
late  foray  into  a  sister  republic  from  being  the  prolific  seed 
of  sorrows  without  end. 

Indeed,  the  slow  advance  in  their  full  power,  of  the  school- 
house  and  the  church,  after  the  fugitives  that  have  gone  into 
the  wilderness,  has  given  time  for  a  rank  development  of 
barbaric  passions  and  habits.  The  tendencies  to  physical 
violence,  somewhere  or  upon  somebody,  it  mattered  little 
where  or  upon  whom,  have  had  too  little  check.  The  true 
American  ideas  have  been  supplanted  by  a  system  of  Bed 
ouin  morality  in  the  minds  of  not  a  few,  cast  beyond  the  con 
trol  of  a  high-toned  public  conscience.  Powerful  as  the 
older  and  more  civilized  portions  of  the  Union  have  been  in 
their  enterprize,  zeal  for  freedom,  and  moral  and  religious 
character,  wherever  their  sons  have  pitched  the  tents  of 
their  wanderings,  yet  the  truth  compels  us  to  say,  that  in 
some  portions  of  the  East,  the  Centre,  the  feudal  South, 
and  South- West,  and  the  rude  West,  the  good  principles  of 
an  earlier  day  have  lost  their  savor,  and  the  way  has  been 
opened  for  precisely  such  results  as  have  been  developed 
during  the  last  four  years,  —  the  Annexation  of  Texas,  a 
sanguinary  and  embittered  war,  and  the  dismemberment  of 
Mexico.  The  relations  of  cause  and  effect  hold  true  in  the 
moral  as  surely  as  in  the  material  world.  Nations  reap 
what  they  sow.  We  have,  in  sober  fact,  been  educating 
ourselves  for  a  considerable  time  for  just  such  issues  as  have 
lately  been  developed.  Our  treatment  both  of  the  red  man 
and  the  black  man,  has  habituated  us  to  "  feel  our  power, 
and  forget  right."  Wars  enough  have  been  waged  to  keep 


12         CIRCUMSTANCES    PREDISPOSING    TO    THE    WAR. 

our  muskets  bright.  Our  fourth-of-July  oratory  has  inserted 
in  youthful  veins  the  deadly  virus  of  warlike  passion.  The 
dauntless  enterprize  of  the  emigrants  who  have  battled  with 
the  wolf  and  the  savage  for  their  domains,  and  who  have 
been  "  famous  according  as  they  had  lifted  up  axes  upon  the 
thick  trees,"  *  has  been  but  too  ready,  under  the  promptings 
of  a  selfish  aggrandizement,  to  conquer  armies  as  well  as 
forests,  and  to  blow  up  capitals  with  as  little  compunction 
as  steamboats.  The  West  and  South  have  many  noble  and 
heroic  elements  of  character  ;  but  a  true  friend  of  either  will 
not  hesitate  to  bid  them  respectively  beware  of  "War  and 
Slavery,  as  institutions  and  customs  at  variance  with  free 
institutions  and  the  Christian  religion. 

The  passion  for  land,  also,  is  a  leading  characteristic  of 
the  American  people.  Coming  out  of  the  straitened  limits 
of  the  old  countries,  where  human  beings  seem  to  be  hydro- 
statically  compressed  within  the  smallest  possible  limits, 
they  naturally  expatiate  at  large  upon  the  boundless  savan 
nahs  of  an  unappropriated  soil.  A  vast,  indefinite,  but  ever- 
haunting  ambition,  seizes  the  new  comer.  The  physical 
grandeur  of  scale  awakens  an  aspiring  imagination.  Ter 
ritory  becomes  inwoven  to  all  ideas  of  personal  or  national 
welfare.  Almost  every  man  owns  his  rood  or  his  township 
of  this  generous  fee-simple  of  nature ;  and  almost  every 
farmer  owns  and  attempts  to  till  more  than  is  justified  by 
good  husbandry.  This  may  prove  true  nationally,  not  less 
than  agriculturally.  An  incessant  grasping  after  more  ter 
ritory  has  characterized  our  past  policy.  The  god  Ter 
minus  is  an  unknown  deity  in  America.  Like  the  hunger 
of  the  pauper  boy  of  fiction,  the  cry  has  been,  "  More,  more, 
give  us  more."  But  we  must  confess  that  we  have  actually 
settled  and  subdued  to  the  uses  of  civilization  only  a  minor 
part  of  the  vast  regions  we  occupy.  We  have  struck  the 

*  Psalm  74  :  5. 


THE    CHIEF    MOTIVE    OF    THE    WAft.  13 

Pacific  Ocean,  and,  far  from  being  content  with  the  immense 
slopes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  the  great  Valley  of  the 
Mississippi  on  the  east,  and  that  of  the  Columbia  on  the 
west,  we  have  chafed  against  the  boundaries  of  nature  and 
of  our  neighbors,  and,  like  Jezebel,  have  coveted  their 
vincvards.  The  history  of  the  last  few  years  has  yielded  a 
melancholy  illustration  of  the  eloquent  special  pleading  of 
the  exhorbitant  passions,  and  the  self-deceiving  justifications 
of  ambition.  Prompt  excuses  have  been  discovered  for  this 
boa-constrictor  appetite  of  swallowing  states  and  provinces, 
in  the  glory  of  free  institutions,  the  blessings  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty,  and  the  extension  of  our  industrial  and 
commercial  system.  Alas  !  we  have  thus  discovered  opiates 
to  lull  our  consciences  when  they  were  uneasy,  and  tonics  to 
invigorate  our  ambition  when  it  was  halting.  Under  the 
dominion  of  this  lust  for  territory,  however  acquired,  we 
have  pushed  onwards  in  a  hot  and  unjustifiable  invasion, 
and  by  a  compulsory  peace,  have  extorted  from  our  neigh 
bors  more  than  half  a  million  of  square  miles  of  land, 
reaching  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  across  the  breadth 
of  the  North  American  continent. 


f 

\  ti 
\   . 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE    CHIEF    MOTIVE    OF    THE    V>'AR. 

V  He  finds  his  fellow  guilty  of  a  skin 
Not  colored  like  his  o\vn  ;  and  having  power 
T'  enforce  the  wrong-,  for  such  a  worthy  cause, 
Dooms  and  devotes  him  a.s  his  lawful  prey."  —  COWPER. 

THE  motives  which  actuate  public  men  and  political  par- 
ties,  are  not   alwavs.  openly  avowed.     There  are  secrets  of 


14  THE    CHIEF   MOTIVE    OF   THE    WAR. 

I  state  in  the  administration  of  republican  as  well  as  despotic 
/  governments,  though  not  of  the   same  number  or  extent. 
i  The  causes  which  determine  the  line  of  national  policy,  can 
/  sometimes  only  be  inferred,  though  the  inference  may  be 
I   raised   to  a   high  degree  of  probability.     Important  docu 
ments,  which  would  no  doubt  throw  great  light  upon  inter 
national  affairs,  are  buried  in  the  archives  of  state,  and  a 
seal  put  upon  their  publication  by  the  plea,  more  or  less 
valid,  that  it  would  embarrass  the  public  service.     We  are, 
therefore,  left  somewhat  in  the  dark  in  reasoning  upon  the 
events  of  history,  though  of  a  very  recent  date ;  and  we  can 
hope  to  reach  in  our  conclusions  only  a  reasonable  measure 
of  moral  probability,  not  an  irresistible  mathematical  cer 
tainty. 

The  circumstances  enumerated  in  the  last  chapter,  were 
predisposing  causes  of  war,  but,  of  themselves,  they  would 
not  have  produced  that  unhappy  result.  Hence  we  look  for 
some  more  positive  and  potent  element.  We  are  ready  to 
concede  something  to  the  pacific  settlement  of  the  Oregon 
question,  which  turned  the  war  spirit  into  a  new  channel ;  — 
something  to  the  desire  of  giving  eclat  to  a  new  administra 
tion  ;  something  to  the  vast  expansion  of  civil  and  military 
patronage  produced  by  war ;  something  to  the  interested 
clamor  of  Mexican  claimants  and  their  friends ;  something 
to  the  magic  power  of  Texan  scrip ;  something  to  a  wide 
spread  suspicion  and  a  quick  jealousy  of  European  inter 
ference  in  the  affairs  of  this  continent ;  but  we  feel  confident 
that  we  are  stating  a  solemn  and  incontrovertible  truth, 
when  we  say  that  we  discern  in  slavery  the  main-spring  to 
.  the  war  with  Mexico.  Had  the  idea  of  extending  the 
\  "peculiar"  institutions  of  the  South,  and  the  political  power 
\  resulting  therefrom,  been  entirely  excluded  from  the  ques 
tion,  not  a  shot  would  ever  have  been  fired. 

We  desire  to  make  such  a  record  on  this  point  as  will 
stand  justified  fifty  years  hence,   when   the  planners   and 


THE    CHIEF   MOTIVE    OP   THE    WATl.  15 

actors  in  present  scenes  have  passed  off  the  stage.  For 
the  purpose  of  confirming  our  statements,  we  shall  take  the 
liberty  of  quoting  published  and  authentic  documents,  with 
out  reference  to  parties.  We  shall  thus  be  led  directly  to 
the  conclusion  expressed  above. 

It  is  unnecessary  here  to  recount  the  details  of  the  annex 
ation  of  Texas  to  the  United  States,  as  our  aim  is  not  a  his 
tory,  so  much  as  a  review,  of  an  important  portion  of  history, 
recent  and  well-known.  That  event,  however,  was  regard 
ed  by  Mexico  as  an  act  of  war  in  itself,  and  was,  no  doubt, 
one  of  the  prominent  causes,  notwithstanding  all  disclaim 
ers,  that  led  to  the  actual  commencement  of  hostilities ;  for 
our  armies  surely  never  would  have  advanced  either  to  the 
Nueces  or  to  the  llio  Grande,  had  it  not  been  for  the  osten 
sible  purpose  of  protecting  our  newly-acquired  domains. 
But  the  scheme  of  Annexation  was  devised,  —  as  openly 
(I£cTaTelT~T)y  some  of  its  staunchest  advocates,- — to  give 
greater  security  to  the  institutions  of  the  South.  The  clear 
and  direct  inference  is,  that  slavery  and  the  war  with  Mex 
ico  have  had  a  cause-and-effect  connection.  Had  slavery 
not  existed  in  our  land,  there  would  have  been  no  annex 
ation  ;  and  had  there  been  no  annexation,  there  would  have 
been  no  strife.  Who  can  dispute  these  propositions,  when 
he  has  candidly  and  truthfully  weighed  the  following  decla 
rations  of  some  of  the  leading  politicians  of  the  day  ?  The 
idea  of  Southern  aggrandizement  was  early  broached  and 
steadily  avowed.  Let  the  credible  witnesses  give  their  tes 
timony. 

Mr.  Upshur  was  a  member  of  the  Virginia  Convention 
in  1829,  and  said  in  that  body :  "  Nothing  is  more  fluctuat 
ing  than  the  value  of  slaves.  A  late  law  of  Louisiana  re 
duced  their  value  twenty-five  per  cent  in  two  hours  after  its 
passage  was  known.  If  it  should  be  our  lot,  as  I  trust  it 
v'  will,  to  acquire  Texas,  their  price  will  rise."  * 

*  Debates  of  that  body. 


16  THE    CHIEF    MOTIVE    OF    THE    WAR. 

Mr.  Doddridge,  another  member  of  the  same  convention, 
a  similar  declaration ;  "  that  the  acquisition  of  Texas 
greatly  enhance  the  value  of  the  property  in  question."* 

Mr.  Gholson  said,  in  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  in  1832  ;  f 
"  that  the  price  of  slaves  fell  twenty-five  per  cent  within  two 
hours  after  the  news  was  received  of  the  non-importation 
act  which  was  passed  by  the  Legislature  of  Louisiana.    J£et  . 
he  believed  the  acquisition  of  Texas  would  raise  their  price    \ 
fifty  per  cent  at  least," 

Mr.  Calhoun  avowed  his  opinions  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States,  as  early  as  May  23,  1836  ;  "there  were  pow 
erful  reasons  why  Texas  should  be  a  part  of  this  Union. 
The  Southern  States  owning  a  slave  population  were  deep 
ly  interested  in  preventing  that  country  from  having  the 
power  to  annoy  them  ;  and  the  navigating  and  manufactur 
ing  interests  of  the  North,  were  equally  interested  in  making 
it  a  part  of  the  Union."  I 

Meantime,  the  Cuban  slave-trade  had  fearfully  increased, 
and  fresh  commissions  were  constantly  arriving  at  Havana 
from  Texas,  to  buy  the  wretched  sons  of  Africa  who  had 
been  torn  from  their  native  soil,  and  transported  across  the 
ocean  by  fiends  in  human  shape.  President  Houston  said 
in  his  annual  Message  to  the  Congress  of  the  Republic  of 
Texas,  in  1837;  "not  unconnected  with  the  naval  force  of 
the  country  is  the  subject  of  the  African  slave-trade.  It 
cannot  be  disbelieved  that  thousands  of  Africans  have  lately 
been  imported  to  the  Island  of  Cuba,  with  a  design  to  trans 
fer  a  large  portion  of  them  into  this  republic."  The  British 
commissioners  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave-trade,  who 
resided  in  Cuba  agreeably  to  the  treaty  of  1817  with  Spain, 
reported  that  twenty-seven  slave-vessels  arrived  in  Havana 
in  1833,  thirty-three  in  1834,  fifty  in  1836,  and  in  1835,  that 

*  See  note  on  preceding  p.sge. 

I  Journal  of  Session,  1832. 

\  29th  Congress.  2d  Session.  Congressional  Globe,  pp.  495. 


THE    CHIEF   MOTIVE    OF    THE    WAR.  17 

more  than  fifteen  thousand  negroes  must  have  been  landed ! 
Sir  T.  F.  Buxton  stated  that  in  1837  and  1838,  no  less  than  / 
"  fifteen  thousand  negroes  had  been  imported  from  Africa  * 
into  Texas."  Other  accounts  rate  the  number  still  higher. 
One  Taylor,  of  Barbadoes,  was  convicted  of  sending  free 
negroes  to  this  new  market,  and  selling  them.  The  Albany 
Argus  of  1844,  mentions  the  case  of  one  man  who  sent  ten 
thousand  dollars  to  Cuba  for  the  purchase  of  human  beings. 
The  emigrants  from  the  United  States  had  a  palpable  mo 
tive  to  expose  this  infamous  traffic,  and  seek  to  extinguish  it, 
because  it  cheapened  their  own  slaves.  * 

The  project  of  annexation  was  not  suffered  to  sleep,  but 
from  year  to  year  was  cherished  and  developed  by  its  zeal 
ous  and  untiring  friends.  The  great  end,  too,  which  it 
would  eventually  subserve,  was  kept  distinctly  in  view. 

Mr.  Upshur,  Secretary  of  State,  wrote  to  W.  S.  Murphy, 
charge  d  'affaires  of  the  United  States  in  Texas,  in  a  letter 
dated  Washington,  Aug.  8,  1843,  as  follows  ;  "  The  establish 
ment,  in  the  very  midst  of  our  slave-holding  States,  of  an 
independent  Government,  forbidding  the  existence  of  slave 
ry,  and  by  a  people  born  for  the  most  part  among  us,  reared 
up  in  our  habits,  and  spreading  our  language,  could  not  fail 
to  produce  the  most  unhappy  effects  upon  both  parties.  If 
Texas  were  in  that  condition,  her  territory  would  afford  a 
ready  refuge  for  the  fugitive  slaves  of  Louisiana  and  Arkan 
sas,  and  would  hold  out  to  them,  an  encouragement  to  run 
away  which  no  municipal  regulations  of  those  States  could 
possibly  counteract." 

***** 

"  Few  calamities  could  befal  this  country  more  to  be  de 
plored  than  the  establishment  of  a  predominant  British  in 
fluence,,  and  the  abolition  of  domestic  slavery  in  Texas."  f 


*  Moody's  Facts  for  the  People.,  pp.  69,  70. 
t  28th  Congress,  1st  Session,  Senate,  341,  pp.  21,  22. 
2* 


18  THE    CHIEF    MOTIVE    OF    THE    WAK. 

On  Sept.  22d,  the  subject  was  renewed ;  he  said :  —  "  there 
is  no  reason  to  fear  that  there  will  be  any  difference  of 
opinion  among  the  slave-holding  States  ;  and  there  is  a  large 
number  in  the  non-slave-holding  States ;  with  views  suf 
ficiently  liberal  to  embrace  a  policy  absolutely  necessary  to 
the  salvation  of  the  south,  although,  in  some  respects,  objec 
tionable  to  themselves."  * 

He  wrote  to  Mi*.  Murphy,  Jan.  10,  1814,  "if  Texas 
should  not  be  attached  to  the  United  States,  she  cannot  main 
tain  that  institution  ten  years,  and  probably  not  half  that 
time."  t 

Said  Mr.  Murphy  to  Mr.  Upslmr,  Sept.  23d ;  "  Saying 
nothing  therefore  which  can  offend  even  our  fanatical  breth 
ren  of  the  North ;  let  the  United  States  espouse  at  once  the 
cause  of  civil,  political  and  religious  liberty  (?)  in  this  hem 
isphere  ;  this  will  be  found  to  be  the  safest  issue  to  go  before 
the  world  with"  % 

*  *  *  He  wrote  on  Sept.  24th ;  «  The 
Constitution  of  Texas  §  secures  to  the  Master,  the  perpetual 
right  to  his  slave,  and  prohibits  the  introduction  of  slaves 
into  Texas  from  any  other  quarter  than  the  United  States. 

"  If  the  United  States  preserves  and  secures  to  Texas  the 
possession  of  her  Constitution,  and  present  form  of  Govern 
ment,  then  we  have  gained  all  we  can  desire,  and  also  all 

that  Texas  asks  or  wishes." 

#  #  •  #  *  # 

"Take  this  position  on  the  side  of  the  constitution  and 
the  laws,  and  the  civil,  political  and  religious  liberties  of  the 


*  28th  Congress,  1st  Session,  Senate,  341,  p.  26.  t  Ibid.  p.  46, 

J  Ibid.  p.  25 

§  Art  8.  Sec.  1.  Laws  of  Texas.  '-The  Legislature  shall  bare  no 
power  to  pa>>  laws  for  tbe  emancipation  of  slaves,  without  the  consent 
of  their  owners,  nor  without  paying  their  owners  previously  to  such 
emancipation,  a  full  equivalent  in  money  for  the  slaves  so  eman 
cipated." 


THE    CHIEF    MOTIVE    OF    THE    WAR.  19 

people  secured  thereby,  (saying  nothing  about  abolition)  and 
all  the  world  will  be  with  you."  * 

Mr.  Upshur  writes,  Nov.  21, 1843,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Mur 
phy,  "  we  regard  it,  (annexation)  as  involving  the  security  >£ 
of  the  South ;  and  the  strength  and  prosperity  of  every  part* 
of  the  Union." 

It  would  be  easy  to  quote  by  chapter  and  verse,  from  the 
official  documents  of  the  time,  many  passages  of  a  similar 
import.  But  as  Mr.  Calhoun  has  said,f  "  I  may  now  right 
fully  and  indisputably  claim  to  be  the  author  of  that  great 
event,"  (annexation),  let  us  look  at  his  declarations  on  this 
subject. 

His  language  was  to  Mr.  Pakenham,  the  British  Minister, 
April  18,  1844:  "It  is  with  still  deeper  concern  the  Presi 
dent  regards  the  avowal  of  Lord  Aberdeen  of  -the  desire 
of  Great  Britain  to  see  slavery  abolished  in  Texas. j 

And  on  the  19th,  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Green,  charge  d'  affaires 
to  Texas  :  "  It  was  impossible  for  the  United  States  to  wit 
ness  with  indifference  the  efforts  of  Great  Britain  to  abolish 
slavery  there."  § 

Respecting  the  Treaty  of  Annexation,  then  under  nego 
tiation,  he  wrote  to  the  British  Minister,  on  the  27th,  that 
"  It  was  made  necessary  in  order  to  preserve  domestic  insti 
tutions,  placed  under  the  guaranty  of  their  (United  States 

*  28th  Congress,  1st  Session,  Senate.  341,  pp.  23,  24. 

t  Printed  speech  in  the  Senate,  Feb.  24,  1847,  p.  3. 

|  28th  Congress,  1st  Session,  Semite,  341,  p.  50. 

Mr.  Benton  well  critieised  this  extreme  sensitiveness,  in  his  speech 
in  the  Senate  on  the  Treaty  of  Annexation,  May  16,  18  and  20,  1844. 
Reported  in  the  National  Intelligencer,  May  30,  1844.  "Great  Britain 
avows  all  she  intends,  and  that  a  wish  —  to  see  —  slavery  abolished  in 
Texas ;  and  she  declares  all  the  means  which  she  means  to  use,  and 
that  is,  advice  where  it  is  acceptable, 

';  It  will  be  a  strange  spectacle,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  to  behold 
the  United  States  at  war  with  Mexico,  because  Great  Britain  wishes  — 
to  see  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  Texas." 

$  28th  Congress,  1st  Session,  Senate,  341,  pp.  54,  66. 


THE    CHIEF   MOTIVE    OP   THE    WAR. 

_  ^  and  Texas)  respective  constitutions,  and  deemed  essential  to 
*£•  their  safety  and  prosperity."  * 

And  in  a  speech  in  the  Senate,  Feb.  24,  1847,  he  said, — 
"  Sir,  I  admit,  even  at  that  early  period,  I  saw  that  the 
%.    incorporation  of  Texas  into  this  Union,  would  be  indispen- 
(*  sable  both  to  her  safety  and  ours.     I  saw  that  it  was  impos- 
^  sible  that  she  could  stand  as  an  independent  power  between 
^C   us  and  Mexico,  without  becoming  the  scene  of  intrigue  of 
'  foreign  Powers,  alike  destructive  of  the  peace  and  security 
T     of  both  Texas  and  ourselves.     I  saw  more :  I  saw  the  bear 
ing  of  the  slave  question  at  that  early  stage,  and  that  it 
would  become  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  a  foreign  Pow 
er,  of  striking  a  blow  at  us ;    and  that  two  conterminous 
slave-holding  communities  could  not  co-exist   without  one 
being  wielded  to  the  destruction  of  the  other."  f 

The  Galveston  Gazette,  April,  1844,  rejects  the  idea  that 
any-thing  less  than  slavery  over  the  whole  vast  region  of 
Texas  would  be  accepted  by  the  Southern  States.  It  says 
that  "  It  is  thrown  out,  in  some  of  the  papers  of  the  United 
States,  that  the  annexation  of  Texas  is  to  be  a  measure  ef 
fected  by  a  compromise,  a  condition  being  that  the  Territory 
of  Texas  is  to  be  divided  into  three  States,  in  one  of  which 
slavery  is  to  be  tolerated  while  it  is  to  be  prohibited  in  the 
others.  This  idea,  we  think,  must  have  originated  from 

*  This  panic  was  afterwards  confessed  by  some  of  the  chief  actors  in 
annexation  to  be  a  mere  ruse,  got  up  for  the  sake  of  effect,  and  with 
out  any  substantial  foundation  in  facts.  See  Gen.  Samuel  Houston's 
Letter  to  a  friend  on  the  subject,  published  in  1848,  and  his  speech  in 
the  Senate,  Feb.  19,  1847,  Congress.  Globe,  29th  Congress,  2d  Session. 
p.  459.  And  yet  so  strong  was  the  jealousy  of  foreign  interference 
thus  excited,  that  Mr.  Choate  used  this  language  in  his  speech  in  the 
Senate  on  the  Treaty  of  Annexation,  May  22,  1844;  "Sir,  besides 
the  apprehension  that  England  will,  by  treaty  or  influence,  induce 
Texas  to  emancipate  her  slaves,  —  besides  this,  there  is  not  even  the 
pretence  of  a  reason  for  this  war  (by  the  separation  of  Texas  from 
-  Mexico)  on  your  friend.  This  apprehension  is  all," 

t  Printed  speech,  p.  8. 


THE    CHIEF   MOTIVE    OF    THE    WAR.  21 

other  than  official  sources ;  and  the  measure  proposed  would, 
we  believe,  be  far  better  calculated  to  defeat  than  to  secure 
the  success  of  the  project  of  annexation.  It  might  satisfy 
the  North;  but  it  would  displease  the  South  in  the  same 
proportion,  and  would,  we  feel  confident,  never  receive  the 
sanction  of  the  slave  States." 

Numerous  testimonies  to  the  deep  interest  taken  by 
Southern  statesmen  in  the  measure  of  annexation,  as  des 
tined  to  enlarge,  not  "  the  area  of  freedom,"  but  of  slavery, 
may  be  gathered  from  the  discussions  both  in  and  out  of 
Congress,  on  the  Treaty  offered  to  the  Senate  for  confirma 
tion  by  President  Tyler.  In  his  Message  of  April  22, 1844, 
he  said :  "  At  the  same  time,  the  Southern  and  the  South- 
Western  States  will  find,  in  the  fact  of  annexation,  protec 
tion  and  security  to  their  peace  and  tranquillity,  as  well 
against  all  domestic  as  foreign  efforts  to  disturb  them."* 

Mr.  McDuffie  took  the  same  view,  in  his  speech  in  the 
Senate,  May  23,  1844,  reported  in  the  National  Intelligencer, 
June  8th.  Speaking  of  the  African  race,  he  said :  "  That 
population  in  the  United  States  cannot  be  diminished,  but 
must  be  increased.  Now,  if  we  shall  annex  Texas,  it  will 
operate  as  a  safety-valve  to  let  off  the  superabundant  slave 
population  from  among  us,  and  will,  at  the  same  tune,  im 
prove  their  condition  ;  they  will  be  more  happy,  and  we 
shall  be  more  secure.  But  if  you  pen  them  up  within  our 
present  limits,  what  becomes  of  the  free  negroes,  and  what 
will  be  their  condition  ?  " 

Mr.  Archer,  of  Virginia,  asked  in  the  Senate,f  June  8, 
1844 :  "  Did  this  result,  of  keeping  open  a  drain  for  slave 
labor  in  Texas,  involve  no  advantage  to  the  slave  holding 
States  ?  Certainly,  the  highest  advantage.  But  it  was  not 


*  28th  Congress,  1st  Session,  Senate,  341,  p.  6. 
t  28th  Congress,  1st  Session,  Appendix  to  Congressional  Globe, 
May,  1844  p.  696. 


22  THE    CHIEF    MOTIVE    OF    THE    WAR. 

present  pecuniary  advantage,  nor  did  it  tend  to  the  extension 
of  slave-holding  influence  in  the  government." 
-  Mr.  Foster,  Senator  from  Tennessee,  was  frank  and  open 
in  liis  avowal  in  the  same  debate :  "  It  cannot  be  denied,  Sir, 
but  that  the  measure  is  essentially  Southern  in  its  character 
and  purposes,  and  intended,  if  its  policy  is  hereafter  faithfully 
executed,  to  protect  the  South  and  the  South  West,  both  at 
home  and  from  abroad,  in  the  more  peaceful  and  secure  en 
joyment  of  certain  property,  guarantied  to  the  inhabitants 
of  that  section  of  the  Union,  by  the  solemn  sanctions  of  the 
v-Federal  Constitution." 

The  N.  H.  Patriot,  May,  1844,  avowed,  that   "Slavery 
and  the  defence  of  slavery,  form  the  controlling  considera 
tions  urged  in  favor  of  the  treaty  (of  annexation),  by  those 
who  have  been  engaged  in  its  negotiations/' 
/""""""Mr.  Preston,  of  South  Carolina,  in  a  speech  at  Baltimore, 
I  quoted  in  the  National  Intelligencer,  Oct.   31,   1844,  says: 
V  «  Annexation  was  desired,  for  the  purpose  of  sustaining  and 
extending  the  institution  of  slavery,  —  a  motive  by  which  he 
could  not  be  governed.     The  institution  of  slavery  was  one 
which  belonged  exclusively  to  us  of  the  South  ;  it  was  our 
wn   domestic  affair  ;  we  were  to  take   care  of  it  for  our 
selves,  without  any  extraneous  interference ;  and  he  would 
be  the  first  to  resist  any  such  interference.     But  when  he 
attempted  to  "acquire  territory,  with  a  view  and  for  the  pur 
pose  of  extending  slavery  beyond  its  proper  limits,  the  case 
was  altered ;  we  had  changed  our  position  from  the  defen 
sive  to  the  ja£g^sly&5  "Were  we,  IvIioTJoast  of  our  free 
principles,  to  raise  the  black  flag  and  go  to  war  with  a  sister 
'  republic,  to  extend  the  institution  of  slavery  ?  " 

The  New  Ywk  Evening  Post,  April,  1844,  took  a  similar 
view  of  the  subject,  in  an  article  on  the  Treaty :  "  It  is 
evident,  that  this  presents  to  the  people  of  the  Union  a 
question  entirely  new,  and  which  they  cannot  avoid.  This 
issue  is  not  as  to  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  Southern 


THE    CHIEF    MOTIVE    OF    THE    WAR.  23 

States,  the  District,  nor  the  Territories  of  the  Union,  but 
whether  this  government  shall  devote  its  whole  energies  to 
the  perpetuation  of  slavery ;  whether  all  the  sister  republics 
on  this  continent,  which  desire  to  abolish  slavery,  are  to  be 
dragooned  by  us  into  the  support  of  this  institution." 

Mr.  Calhoun  writes  a  letter  to  Mr.  Fakenham,  April  18, 
1844,  in  which  he  goes  into  a  labored  defence  of  slavery; 
seems  almost  to  doubt  whether  the  Free  States  have  done 
well  in  abolishing  it ;  declares  that  Texas  is  to  be  annexed, 
to  guard  against  the  danger  of  its  being  abolished  in  the 
Southern  States  ;  and  finally  declares  :  "  That  what  is  called 
slavery  is  in  reality  a  political  institution ;  essential  to  the 
peace,  safety,  and  prosperity  of  those  States  of  the  Union  in 
which  it  exists."* 

The  diplomatic  agents,  both  American  and  Mexican, 
agreed  as  to  the  object  of  annexation,  however  they  might 
differ  as  to  its  means  and  modes. 

S.  Bocanegra,  Minister  of  Foreign  Relations  in  Mex-~ 
ico,  wrote  to  Mr.  Green,  charge  d'affaires  to  the  United 
States,  May  30,  1844:f  "But  when,  in  order  to  sustain 
that  slavery,  and  avoid  its  disappearance  from  Texas  and 
from  other  points,  recourse  is  had  to  the  arbitrary  act  of 
depriving  Mexico  of  an  integral  part  of  her  possessions,  as 
the  onlv  certain  and  efficacious  remedy  to  prevent  what  Mr. 
Green  calls  '  a  dangerous  event ; '  if  Mexico  should  be 
silent,  and  lend  her  deference  to  the  present  policy  of  the 
Executive  of  the  United  States,  the  reproach  and  the  cen 
sure  of  nations  ought  to  be  her  reward." 

Mr.  Green  had  previously  said,  on  the  23d  of  the  same 
month,  what  would  justify  this  Mexican  inference : }  "  The 
undersigned"  is  also  instructed  to  state  to  the  Mexican  Gov- 

*  28th  Con^Tes?,  1st  Session,  Senate,  341,  p.  53. 

t  Ibid.  2d  Cession,  House  of  Representatives,  Ex.  Doc.  2,  p.  54. 

t  Ibid,  p.  52. 


24  THE    CHIEF   MOTIVE    OF    THE    WAR. 

r    eminent,  that  this  step  (Treaty  of  Annexation)  was  forced 

upon  the  Government  of  the  United  States  i^"self-defence; , 

in  consequence  of  the  policy  adopted  by  Great  ^Britain,  in 

\      reference  to  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  Texas.     It  was  im- 

\     possible  for  the  United  States  to  witness  with  indifference 

\    the  efforts  of  Great  Britain  to  abolish  slavery  in  that  terri- 

\  tory.     They  could  not  but  see  that  she  had  the  means  in  her 

power,  in  the  actual  condition  of  Texas,  to  accomplish  the 

objects  of  her  policy,  unless  prevented  by  the  most  efficient 

measures  ;  and  that,  if  accomplished,  it  would  lead  to  a  state 

of  things  dangerous  in  the  extreme  to  the  adjacent  States,  and 

to  the  Union  itself." 

The  same  idea  was  continued  by  Mr.  Shannon,  American 
Minister  to  Mexico,  in  a  letter  to  S.  Rejon,  the  Mexican 
Secretary,  Oct.  14,  1844:*  "It  (annexation)  has  been  a 
measure  of  policy,  long  cherished  and  deemed  indispensable 
to  their  (United  States')  safety  and  welfare,  and  has,  ac 
cordingly,  been  an  object  steadily  pursued  by  all  parties,  and 
the  acquisition  of  the  territory  made  the  subject  of  negotia 
tion  by  almost  every  administration  for  the  last  twenty 
years.  This  policy  may  be  traced  to  the  belief,  generally 
entertained,  that  Texas  was  embraced  in  the  cession  of 
Louisiana  by  France,  to  the  United  States,  in  1803,  and  was 
improperly  surrendered  by  the  Treaty  of  Florida,  in  1819  ; 
connected  with  the  fact,  that  a  large  portion  of  the  territory 
lies  in  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  and  is  indispensable  to 
the  defence  of  a  distant  and  important  frontier.  The  hazard 
of  a  conflict  of  policy  upon  important  points,  between  the 
United  States  and  one  of  the  leading  European  powers,  since 
the  recognition  of  Texas,  has  rendered  the  acquisition  still 
more  essential  to  their  safety  and  welfare ;  and  accord 
ingly,  has  increased  in  proportion  the  necessity  of  acquir 
ing  it." 

*  28th  Congress,  2d  Session,  House  of  Representative?,  Ex.  Doc. 
2,  p.  47. 


THE    CHIEF    MOTIVE    OF    THE    WAR.  25 

The  Treaty  of  Annexation  was  lost  in  the  Senate,  by  a 
vote  of  35  to  16  ;  but  when,  in  1845,  the  mode  of  annexa 
tion  by  Joint  Resolution  of  the  Senate  and  the  House  of  Re 
presentatives  was  under  debate,  avowals  equally  bold  were 
made  of  the  pro-slavery  views  of  its  wannest  friends.  I 
quote  out  of  a  multitude  only  a  few  of  the  most  explicit 
declarations. 

Mr.  Holmes,  of  South  Carolina,  member  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  inquired,  during  the  discussion  :  *  "  Would 
Southern  gentlemen  consent  to  divide  Texas  into  two  States : 
one  sfaveholding,  and  one  not  ?  —  slavery  to  be  admitted  into 
the  portion  adjacent  to  the  South,  while  free  labor  was  con 
fined  to  the  portion  which  bordered  on  Mexico.  Would  any 
Southerner  agree  to  this  ?  Would  he  cut  off  his  own 
egress,  and  fetter  the  energies  of  the  slave-holding  commu 
nity  ?  If  any  Southern  man  assented  to  such  a  proposition, 
he  must  be  either  a  fool  or  a  knave  :  a  fool,  not  to  perceive 
its  bearing ;  and  a  knave,  if  perceiving  it  he  did  not  resist 
it." 

Mr.  Merrick,  of  Maryland,  said  in  the  Senate :  f  "  The 
domestic  tranquillity  of  the  country  is  endangered,  and 
you  reject  Texas  now  for  reasons  such  as  these,  think  you 
that  the  South  will  sit  down  quietly  under  it  ?     Will  the 
ppirit  of  abolition  cease  to  goad  and  war  upon  the  sensitive 
interest  of  the  South  ?     And  to  what  must  its  assaults  inev-      ^ 
it  ably  lead?     We  are  now  in  a  minority  in  both  houses  of^Ci/)/ 
Congress,  in  point  of  fact,  on  this   question.     Restore  the      f 
balance  of  power,  and  all  will  be  safe.     The  South  does       ^ 
not  want  power  to  encroach  upon  the  North  ;  no  one  dreads 
or  thinks  of  that.     But  we  need  power  to  defend  and  pro- s    \  t 
tcct  ourselves.     It  has  grown  into  a  maxim,  that  the  best 
security  for  peace   is  to  be  prepared  for  war.     The  best 
security  for  the  South  is  to  be  able  to  protect  herself.     The 

*  Appendix  to  the  Congressional  Globe,  28th  Congress,  2d  Session, 
p.  108.  f-  Ibid,  p.  233. 

3 


51Ot 

'he  1 

if 


THE    CHIEF    MOTIVE    OF   THE 

lance  of  power  once  restored,  abolitionists  would  then  let 
us  alone,  and  this  blighting  agitation  would  die  its  natural 
death.  For  these  reasons,  sir,  I  am  warranted  in  saying, 
that,  for  the  purpose  of  preserving  domestic  tranquillity,  we 
should  admit  Texas." 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Arkansas,  said  in  the  same  debate  in  the 
Senate :  *  "  That  if  Texas  should  not  be  admitted,  the 
Southern  States  must  be  depopulated.  It  might  be  true,  that 
the  admission  of  Texas  would  change  the  local  position  of 
some  of  our  planters  ;  but  that  was  a  matter  very  immate 
rial,  because  their  relation  to  the  Union  and  to  the  govern 
ment  would  still  continue  the  same.  All  the  cotton  raised 
by  our  citizens  would  be  raised  within  our  own  country,  and 
by  men  having  the  same  feelings  and  interests  with  our 
selves." 

Mr.  Johnson,  of  Louisiana,  made  these  remarks  :  f  "  The 
measure  was  boldly  opposed,  in  and  out  of  Congress,  on  the 
ground  that  it  would  perpetuate  slavery,  and  add  to  the 
strength  and  power  of  the  Southern  States.  Such  an  oppo 
sition,  proceeding  from  such  sources,  for  such  purposes, 
had  operated  powerfully  on  his  mind  in  favor  of  annex 
ation." 

"  The  State  he  had  the  honor  in  part  to  represent  was  as 
deeply  interested  in  the  slave  question  as  any  other  in  the 
Union ;  and  could  it  be  supposed  that  he  could  listen  with 
indifference  to  such  attacks,  made  on  the  rights  of  property 
of  its  citizens,  or  oppose  a  measure  calculated,  in  his  opinion, 
to  strengthen  those  rights,  and  to  promote  the  permanent 
prosperity  and  glory  of  the  nation  ?" 

The  Washington  Union  of  May  23,  1845,  quoted  with 
approbation  the  words  of  an  American,  who  had  lately  been 
in  Texas,  and  who  congratulated  the  editors  on  the  success 

*  Appendix  to  the  Congressional  Globe,  28th  Congress,  2d  Session, 
p.  287. 

t  Ibid.  p.  224- 


THE    CHIEF    MOTIVE    OF    THE    WAR.  27 

of  annexation,  "  asugiving  the  South  so  national  a  guaranty 
against  the  folly  of  the  abolitionists." 

So  far,  then,  as  the  Annexation  of  Texas  involved  us  in 
diffieuTt^FwTtTi  ouTneighbors,  or  was  a  preliminary  to  open 
war,  so  far  is  the  institution  of  slavery  in  our  country  impli 
cated  in  tli e  same  unhappy  results.  For  that  the  latter  was 
an  actuating" mb'Kve  to '"effect  the  former,  is  explicitly  stated 
in  the  above  plain  declarations,  which  we  might  multiply 
indefinitely.  We  are  not  now  pronouncing  upon  the  fitness 
or  unfitness  of  such  a  connection,  but  we  simply  state  it  as 
a  fact,  that  is  substantiated  by  the  best  authority.  To  have 
omitted  this  "piece  of  history,  in  chapters  on  the  antecedent 
circumstances  and  causes  of  the  Mexican  War,  would  be,  to 
use  the  illustration  of  another,  as  absurd  as  "  acting  the  play 
of  Hamlet,  with  the  part  of  Hamlet  omitted." 

But  the  institution  in  question  has  not  only  been  acces 
sory  to  the  war  through  annexation,  but  it  also  acted  directly 
to  prolong  it,  in  furtherance  of  its  own  ulterior  purposes. 
Let  us  call  some  trust-worthy  witnesses  to  the  stand. 

The  Charleston  Courier  speaks  thus :  *  "  Besides,  every 
battle  fought  in  Mexico,  and  every  dollar  spent  there, 
but  insures  the  acquisition  of  territory,  which  must  widen 
the  field  of  Southern  enterprise  and  power  in  the  future ; 
and  the  final  result  will  be  to  readjust  the  whole  balance  of 
power  in  the  confederacy,  so  as  to  give  us  control  over  the 
operations  of  the  government  in  all  time  to  come.  •  If  the 
South  be  true  to  themselves,  the  day  of  our  depression  is 
gone,  and  gone  forever." 

In  a  debate  in  Congress,  upon  a  bill  introduced  by  Mr. 
Preston  King,  but  not  passed,  that  slavery  should  be  ex 
cluded  from  the  territory  that  might  be  acquired  from  Mex 
ico,  Mr.  Milliard,  of  Alabama,  said :  f  "  That  gentlemen 

transcended  the  rules  which  should  govern  them  here;  if 

« 

*  Moody 's  Fact;-,  j>.  124.  t  Ibid.  p.  126. 


28  THE    CHIEF   MOTIVE    OF   THE    WAR. 

they  proceeded,  they  would  rouse  a  feeling  at  the  South 
that  would  rend  the  bonds  of  this  Union,  as  Sampson  burst 
the  withes  that  bound  him.  Was  this  the  doctrine  that  was 
to  be  acted  on,  —  that,  acquire  \vhat  territory  we  might,  free 
labor  might  be  suffered  to  go  there,  but  the  men  of  the 
South  should  not  take  their  slaves  with  them  there  ?  If  this 
thing  was  to  be  done,  this  government  would  be  unequal,  and 
its  days  would  be  numbered." 

Mr.  Dargan,  from  the  same  State,  also  said :  *  "  What 
would  be  thought  by  the  volunteers  from  the  South,  when  it 
was  announced  to  them  that  slavery  was  to  be  excluded 
from  the  territory,  their  arms  had  acquired  ?  This  question 
must  be  settled  before  we  proceed  to  acquire  more  territory, 
for  afterwards  it  will  be  too  late." 

*  *  *  *  * 

"  Say  to  the  South,  that  they  are  only  fighting  to  make 
free  territory,  that  it  is  only  for  this  that  the  brave  men  of 
Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Alabama,  are  periling  their  lives, 
and  they  will  demand  the  settlement  of  this  question  now, 
preliminary  to  any  further  prosecution  of  the  war." 

Mr.  Sims,  of  South  Carolina,  in  a  speech  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  Jan.  28,  1847:  "And  I  have  no  doubt,  —  I 
express  the  opinion  here,  —  that  every  foot  of  territory  we 
shall  permanently  occupy  south  of  thirty-six  degrees  thirty 
minutes,  will  be  slave  territory."  In  reply  to  a  question  by 
Mr.  Burt,  whether  it  would  be  in  consequence  of  the  state 
of  public  opinion  in  the'  Northern,  Western,  or  Middle 
States?  or  whether  it  was  in  consequence  of  the  known 
determination  of  the  Southern  people,  that  their  institu 
tions  shall  be  carried  into  that  country,  if  acquired  ?  Mr. 
Sims  answered :  "  It  is  founded  on  the  known  determination 
of  the  Southern  people,  that  their  institutions  shall  be  car 
ried  there ;  it  is  founded  on  the  laws  of  God,  written  on 

*  Moody's  Facts,  pp.  126,  127. 


THE  CHIEF  MOTIVE  OF  THE  WAR.          29 

the  climate  and  soil  of  the  country  ;  nothing  but  slave  labor 
can~cuTti  vale  p  rofi  t  ubl  v  that  region  of  country.  I  have  no 
ideaTthat  the  jSforth  or  the  West  will  resist  to  the  death. 
This  Union  never  will  be  dissolved  on  that  question." 

Mr.  Roberts,  of  Mississippi,  demanded  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  Feb.  4,  1847:*  "And  are  we  to  tell  a 
Butler,  a  Quit-man,  a  Davis,  a  Yell,  a  Price,  a  Pillow,  and  a 
host  of  other  Southern  gentlemen,  officers,  and  soldiers,  who 
have  bravely  volunteered,  and  shed  their  blood,  and  dissi 
pated  their  treasure,  who  represent  millions  of  slave  holders, 
that,  after  the  territory  that  may  be  acquired  has  been  pur 
chased  at  so  fearful  a  cost,  they,  or  their  wives,  or  their 
children,  or  their  friends,  or  relatives,  shah1  not  go  upon  the 
territory  to  possess  it,  people  it,  and  cultivate  it,  and  build 
upon  it,  for  themselves  and  their  children?  No,  sir  ;  they 
will  tell  us,  and  I  tell  you,  the  South  will  have  her  rights, 
come  whatmav^' 

"TdrTT'al  houn  f  in  the  Senate  maintained,  in  like  manner, 
the  right  of  slave-holders  to  carry  their  slaves,  and  hold  their 
slaves  in  the  new  territories  conquered  from  Mexico:  — 
"  The  case  of  our  recently-acquired  territory  from  Mexico, 
is,  if  possible,  more  marked.  The  events  connected  with 
the  acquisition  are  too  well  known  to  require  a  long  nar 
rative.  It  was  won  by  arms,  and  a  great  sacrifice  of  men 
and  money.  The  South,  in  the  contest,  performed  her  full 
/share  of  military  duty,  and  earned  a  full  share  of  military 
*  honor  ;  has  poured  out  her  full  share  of  blood  freely,  and 
has  and  will  bear  a  full  share  of  the  expense  ;  has  evinced  a 
full  share  of  skill  and  bravery,  and  if  I  were  to  say  even 
more  than  her  full  share  of  both,  I  would  not  go  beyond  the 
truth  ;  to  be  attributed,  however,  to  no  superiority  in  either 
respect,  but  to  accidental  circumstances,  which  gave  both  its 


*  Printed  speech,  pp.  6,  7. 
t  Printed  speech,  p.  12,  June  27,  1848, 
2* 


30  THE    CHIEF   MOTIVE    OF    THE    WATC. 

officers  and  soldiers  more  favorable  opportunities  for  their 
display.  All  have  done  their  duty  nobly,  and  high  courage 
and  gallantry  are  but  common  attributes  of  our  people. 
Would  it  be  right  and  just  to  close  a  territory  thus  won 
against  the  South,  and  leave  it  open  exclusively  to  the 
North  ?  Would  it  deserve  the  name  of  free  soil,  if  one  half 
of  the  Union  should  be  excluded  and  the  other  half  should 
monopolize  it,  when  it  was  won  by  the  joint  expense  and 
joint  efforts  of  all  ?  Is  the  great  law  to  be  reversed,  —  that 
which  is  won  by  all  should  be  equally  enjoyed  by  all  ?" 

Forcibly  and  unanswerably  was  it  argued  by  Mr.  Dix  of 
New  York  in  the  Senate,  Feb.  28,  1849  :  *  "  When  the  war 
with  Mexico  was  commenced,  we  were  charged  with  the  in 
tention  of  acquiring  territory  with  a  view  to  carrying  slaves 
into  it.  The  charge  was  denied.  We  repelled  the  impu 
tation  as  doing  injustice  to  our  motives.  Yet,  in  the  very 
first  attempt  to  establish  a  government  for  that  territory, 
the  right  is  insisted  upon,  the  purpose  is  confessed.  Whether 
the  Mexican  Government  was  aware  of  this  imputation,  I 
do  not  know  ;  but  in  the  negotiation  with  Mr.  Trist,  the 
Mexican  commissioners  wished  us  to  stipulate  not  to  carry 
slavery  into  the  territory  which  was  proposed  to  be  ceded.f 
***** 

"These  Mexicans,  whom  we  have   been   accustomed  to 

*  Printed  speech,  p.  11. 

t  "  13th.  The  United  States  shall  compromise  themselves  not  to 
permit  slavery  in  the  part  of  the  territory  which  they  may  acquire  by 
this  treaty."  —  Preliminaries  of  the  Mexican  Commissioners,  Aug.  24, 
1847. 

Mr.  Trist,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Buchanan,  Sept.  4th,  mentions  that  this 
topic  came  up  in  discussion  ;  that  the  commissioners  assured  him  that 
if  it  were  proposed  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  to  part  with  a 
portion  of  their  territory  in  order  that  the  Inquisition  should  be  estab 
lished  in  it,  the  proposal  would  not  awaken  greater  abhorrence  than 
that  awakened  in  Mexico  by  the  prospect  that  slavery  would  be  in 
troduced  in  any  territory  parted  with  by  her ;  that  he  assured  them 


THE    CHIEF    MOTIVE    OF    THE    WAR.  31 

consider  half-civilized,  vanquished  in  the  field,  driven  from 
their  capital,  compelled  to  make  peace  with  us  almost  on  our 
own  terms,  and  forced  to  cede  a  portion  of  their  territory, 
implore  us  not  to  carry  slavery  into  it.  Sir,  I  ask  how 
should  we  stand  before  the  world,  liberal  and  enlightened  as 
we  are,-  proclaiming  to  mankind  the  principle  of  human  lib 
erty  as  one  of  the  inalienable  rights  of  our  race,  if  we  were 
to  disregard  these  entreaties?" 

""We  deem  the  frank  statements  of  Calhoun.  and  others, 
sufficient  proof  that  the  South  would  neither  have  embarked 
in  nor  pursued  the  Mexican  war,  had  they  supposed  that  the 
new  conquests  would  become  free  territories  and  states.  As 
this  is  only  a  review,  and  not  a  history  of  the  war,  it  is  suf 
ficient  to  give  a  specimen  of  the  large  amount  of  docu 
mentary  evidence  existing  upon  this  subject 

We  are  obliged,  therefore,  shocking  as  the  statement  is, 
and  blushing  for  our  native  land  as  we  do,  while  we  record 
it,  to  declare  that  the  paramount  cause  and  motive  of  the 
war  %vjth,Me^dcet,.,wjithout  doubt  or  controversy,  W^jS  teiv""" 
^rfforial  aggrandizement,  urfder  the  dominion  of  domesHc 
slavery "and "the  "internal  slave-trade.  -This  cause,  first  ad» 
voruird  by  a  few,  :».ml  ufterwjinis  i--ntanglin<»-  the  luitir.'i, 
severed  the  province  of  Texas  from  Mexico,  and  annexed  it 
to  the  United  States.  This  cause  carried  the  sword  in  its 
devastating  career  from  Palo  Alto  to  Buena  Vista,  and  from 
Vera  Cruz  to  the  city  of  Mexico.  War  has,  in  former 
times,  made  slaves  of  its  captives ;  but  it  reserved  to  this 
advanced  period  of  the  world  its  chief  exploit  of  seeking  to 

that  he  did  not  differ  with  them  probably  on  slavery,  considered  in  it 
self,  but  that  they  had  erroneous  impressions  of  slavery  as  it  existed 
in  the  United  States,  and  that  he  could  not  accept  the  new  territory  on 
condition  that  slavery  was  excluded,  not  if  its  value  were  increased 
tenfold,  "  and,  in  addition  to  that,  covered  a  foot  thick  all  over  with  pure 
gold."1  The  topic  was  dropped.  30th  Congress,  1st  Session,  Senate, 
Ex.  Doc^  52,  pp,  199,315. 


(p*£ 


PRETEXTS    FOR    WAR. 


'feeffvert  the  land  of  freedom,  which  it  had  conquered,  into 
the  area  of  slavery,  and  of  spreading  over  new  parallels  of 
latitude  the  blight  of  national  injustice  and  eternal  wretch 
edness. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

PRETEXTS    FOR   WAR. 

"  I  believe  that  if  the  question  had  been  put  to  Congress  before  the 
march  of  the  armies  and  their  actual  conflict,  not  ten  votes  could  have 
been  obtained  in  either  house  for  the  war  with  Mexico  under  the  ex 
isting  state  of  things."  —  WEBSTEK. 

THE  chief  motive  to  this  war,  however  it  might  be  in 
cidentally  dropped  by  incautious  lips  or  pens  in  the  ardor 
f  of  debate,  or  in  the  anonymous  newspaper  article,  was  yet 
too  culpable  to  be  openly  avowed  in  the  documents  of  a 
republican  government.  More  plausible  reasons  were  as 
signed.  The  United  States  were  represented  as  the  injured 
and  insulted  ^artyj.  The  war  was  claimed  to  be  a  war  of 
self-defence.  The  vindication  of  national  rights  and""Konor 
was  loucfly  insisted  on^~and~a  spectator  migKtliave  supposed 
that  our  existence  as  a  people  was  in  danger,  and  that  no 
thing  but  the  most  energetic  measures  could  avert  the  im 
pending  ruin.  But  we  find,  now  the  smoke  has  cleared 
away,  and  the  excitement  is  over,  and  we  can  view  things 
calmly  and  considerately,  that  what  were  alleged  as  reasons 
for  the  war  with  Mexico,  prove  to  have  been  but  windy 
pretences.  Many  patriotic  and  good  men  of  all  parties  in 
the  United  States,  did  not  at  the  time  regard  them  as  worthy 


PRETEXTS    FOR   WAR.  33 

causes  of  such  fearful  consequences.  They  received  the 
pointed  censure  of  the  wisest  and  best  in  the  freest  countries 
of  Europe.  They  were  soon  weighed  in  the  balances,  and 
found  wanting,  by  the  votes  and  voices  of  a  majority  of  the 
popular  branch  of  the  American  Legislature.  They  were 
divested  of  most  of  their  plausibility  by  the  progress  of  the 
war,  the  conditions  on  which  peace  was  made,  and  the 
revelations  of  subsequent  political  history ;  and  they  now 
stand  in  the  judgment  of  impartial  history  convicted,  con 
demned,  and  sentenced  to  go  to  "  their  own  place." 

The  first,  in  order  of  time  and  importance,  of  these  pre 
texts  for  war,  was  the  non-fulfilment  by  Mexico  of  her 
agreement  to  indemnify  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  for 
wrongs  inflicted  upon  their  business  and  commerce. 

The  subject  is  elsewhere  considered  in  other  connections 
in  this  review,  but  the  following  condensed  statement  by  the 
venerable  Albert  Gallatin,  will  afford  all  the  necessary  in 
formation  to  make  our  argument  intelligible  :  — 
/  "  It  may  be  proper,  in  the  first  place,  to  observe,  that  the 
refusal  of  doing  justice  in  cases  of  this  kind,  or  the  long 
delays  in  providing  for  them,  have  not  generally  produced 
actual  war.  Almost  always,  long-protracted  negotiations 
have  been  alone  resorted  to.  This  has  been  strikingly  the 
case  with  the  United  States.  The  claims  of  Great  Britain 
for  British  debts,  secured  by  the  treaty  of  1783,  were  not 
settled  and  paid  till  the  year  1803 ;  and  it  was  only  subse 
quently  to  that  year  that  the  claims  of  the  United  States, 
for  depredations  committed  in  1793,  were  satisfied.  The 
very  plain  question  of  slaves  carried  away  by  the  British 
forces  in  1815,  in  open  violation  of  the  treaty  of  1814,  was 
not  settled  and  the  indemnity  paid  till  the  year  1826.  The 
claims  against  France,  for  depredations  committed  in  the 
years  1806  to  1813,  were  not  settled  and  paid  for  till  the 
year  1834.  In  all  these  cases  peace  was  preserved  by 
patience  and  forbearance.  / 


34  PRETEXTS    FOR    WAR. 

"With  respect  to  the  Mexican  indemnities,  the  subject 
had  been  laid  more  than  once  before  Congress,  not  without 
suggestions  that  strong  measures  should  be  resorted  to. 
But  Congress,  in  whom  alone  is  invested  the  power  of  de 
claring  war,  uniformly  declined  doing  it. 

"A  convention  was  entered  into  on  the  llth  of  April, 
1839,  between  the  United  States  and  Mexico,  by  virtue  of 
which  a  joint  commission  was  appointed  for  the  examination 
and  settlement  of  those  claims.  The  powers  of  the  com 
missioners  terminated,  according  to  the  convention,  in  Feb 
ruary,  1842.  The  total  amount  of  the  American  claims 
presented  to  the  commission,  amounted  to  $  6,291,605.  Of 
these,  $ 2,02 6,1 40  were  allowed  by  the  commission;  a  fur 
ther  sum  of  $  928,628  was  allowed  by  the  commissioners  of 
the  United  States,  rejected-  by  the  Mexican  commissioners, 
and  left  undecided  by  the  umpire ;  and  claims  amounting  to 
$3,336,837  had  not  been  examined. 

"  A  new  convention,  dated  January  30,  1843,  granted  to 
the  Mexicans  a  further  delay  for  the  payment  of  the  claims 
which  had  been  admitted,  by  virtue  of  which  the  interest 
due  to  the  claimants  was  made  payable  on  the  30th  of  April, 
1843,  and  the  principal  of  the  awards  and  the  interest  ac 
cruing  thereon,  was  stipulated  to  be  paid  in  five  years,  in 
twenty  equal  instalments  every  three  months.  The  claim 
ants  received  the  interest  on  the  30th  of  April,  1843,  and 
the  three  instalments.  The  agent  of  the  United  States, 
having,  under  peculiar  circumstances,  given  a  receipt  for 
the  instalments  due  in  April  and  July,  1844,  before  they 
had  been  actually  paid  by  Mexico,  the  payment  has  been 
assumed  by  the  United  States  and  discharged  to  the  claim 
ants. 

"A  third  convention  was  concluded  at  Mexico  on  the 
20th  of  November,  1843,  by  the  plenipotentiaries  of  the  two 
governments,  by  which  provision  was  made  for  ascertaining 
and  paying  the  claims  on  which  no  final  decision  had  been 


PRETEXTS    FOR    WAR.  35 

made.  In  January,  1844,  this  convention  was  ratified  by 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  with  two  amendments, 
which  were  referred  to  the  Government  of  Mexico,  but  re 
specting  which  no  answer  has  ever  been  made.  On  the 
12th  of  April,  1844,  a  treaty  was  concluded  by  the  Presi 
dent  with  Texas,  for  the  annexation  of  that  republic  to  the 
United  States.  This  treaty,  though  not  ratified  by  the 
Senate,  placed  the  two  countries  in  a  new  position,  and 
arrested  for  a  while  all  negotiations.  It  was  only  on  the  1st 
of  March,  1845,  that  Congress  passed  a  joint  resolution  for 
the  annexation. 

"  It  appears  most  clearly  that  the  United  States  are  justly 
entitled  to  a  full  indemnity  for  the  injuries  done  to  their 
citizens ;  that,  before  the  annexation  of  Texas,  there  was 
every  prospect  of  securing  that  indemnity ;  and  that  those 
injuries,  even  if  they  had  been  a  just  cause  for  war,  were  in 
no  shape  whatever  the  cause  of  that  in  which  we  are  now  in 
volved."  * 

Thus  far  Mr.  Gallatin ;  from  which,  and  from  other  gen 
eral  knowledge  on  the  subject,  no  doubt  possessed  by  our 
readers,  we  come  to  the  following  conclusions :  — 

A.  That  the  claims  made  by  us  on  other  nations,  though 
long  refused,  were  not  deemed  sufficient  causes  of  war. 

2.  That  Congress,  the  proper  war-making  power,  had  re 
peatedly  declined  resorting  to  arms  to  collect  these  debts  of 
Mexico. 

3.  That,  on  the  whole,  the  conduct  of  Mexico,  considering 
her  disordered  condition,  would,  upon  the  question  of  indem 
nities,  compare  not  unfavorably  with  that  of  England  and 
France. 

4.  That  the  annexation  of  Texas  was  the  chief  cause  of 
the  non-fulfilment  of  her  engagements  by  Mexico. 

5.  That  the  large  amount  of  claims  preferred,  and  the 

*  TVacc  with  Mexico,  p.  2. 


36  PRETEXTS    FOR    WAR. 

much  smaller  amount  allowed  by  the  umpire,  leads  to  the 
strongest  conviction  that  many  of  them  were  fraudulent,  an 
inference  fully  sustained  by  an  examination  of  them  indi 
vidually  as  published  in  the  reports  and  documents  of  the 
time.* 

G.  That,  although  these  difficulties  were  assigned  as  the 
cause  or  excuse  for  war,  subsequently,  yet  at  first,  both  in 
the  documents  of  the  Executive  and  the  legislative  branch 
of  the  Government,  no  explicit  declaration  was  made,  when 
war  was  declared,  of  the  indebtedness  of  Mexico  to  the 
United  States  as  a  bond  fide  reason  for  fighting.  / 

The  next  pretext  was  the  refusal  by  Mexico,  in  1845  -  6, 
to  receive  Mr.  Slidell  as  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister 
Plenipotentiary,  to  reside  in  that  Republic.  The  whole 
history  of  that  affair  is  recorded  in  the  journals  of  the  day, 
and  the  documents  of  Government,  and  need  not  be  tedious 
ly  repeated  here.  The  main  facts  are  these,  and  they  are 
not  disputed  by  any  party.  After  the  passage  of  the  joint 
resolution  for  the  annexation  of  Texas,  in  March,  1845, 
Almonte,  the  Mexican  Minister  at  Washington,  demanded 
his  passports  and  returned  home.  In  September,  the  Pres 
ident  of  the  United  States  made  proposals  for  restoring  a 
cordial  understanding  between  the  two  countries.  The 
Mexican  Government  replied  that  they  felt  deeply  injured, 
but  wquld  receive  a  commissioner  to  "  settle  the  present 
dispute,"  referring  to  the  Texas  question,  provided  the  naval 
forces,  placed  in  a  menacing  attitude  in  sight  of  Vera  Cruz, 
were  recalled.  This  was  done  by  the  United  States.  Mr. 
Slidell,  of  Louisiana,  was  appointed  Envoy  Extraordinary 
and  Minister  Plenipotentiary.  He  arrived  in  the  city  of 
Mexico  Dec.  C,  1845,  and  left  the  country  about  the  1st  of 
April,  1 846.  He  was  not  recognized  by  the  Mexican  Gov 
ernment,  as  was  alleged  on  their  part,  because  he  came  as  a 

*  27th  Congress,  2nd  Session,  Executive  Documents,  No.  21. 


PRETEXTS    FOR   WAR.  87 ' 

resident  Minister,  and  not  as  a  Commissioner.*     But  a  change  |{  < 
of  the  national  administration  from  the  hands  of  the  pacific    ^  " 
Hen-era  to  tho^e  of  the  warlike  Paredes,  which  occurred  in 
the  interim,  was  a  great  obstacle  to  the  success  of  his  mis-^  * 
sion. 

-'  By  a  comparison  of  dates,  however,  it  will  be  found  that 
the  American  Minister  was  not  finally  rejected  until  after 
the  gates  of  war  were  thrown  open  by  the  order  to  Gen. 
Taylor  to  take  his  position  of  offence  on  the  east  bank  of  the 
Rio  Grande.  / 

Mr.  Slidell  wrote  home,t  Dec.  27,  1845,  that  on  the  21st 
of  that  month  he  had  "received  from  Pena  y  Pena  his 
promised  reply,  conveying  the  formal  and  unqualified  re 
fusal  of  the  Mexican  Government  to  receive  me  in  the 
character  for  which  I  am  commissioned."  This  letter  was 
not  received  by  the  authorities  at  Washington,  until  Jan. 
23,  1840,  and,  therefore,  could  not  have  been  the  basis  of  the  1f^ 
order  of  Jan;  loth,  ten  days  before,  ordering  Gen.  Taylor 
to  invade  the  disputed  territory  on  the  Rio  Grande.  Mr. 
Buchanan  states  explicitly  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Slidell,  of  Jan. 
28,  1846,  that  his  despatches  of  the  27th  and  29th  of  Decem 
ber  were  received  on  the  23d  instant.  \ 

But  Herrera's  power  was  overturned,  and  Paredes  came 
to  the  head  of  affairs  on  Jan.  3,  1846.  Still,  there  was  hope 
even  with  the  new  warlike  administration,  of  negotiating  a 
treaty.  On  March  1st,  Mr.  Slidell,  at  Jalapa,  had  letters 
from  the  city  of  Mexico,  which  spoke  "  confidently  of  his 
reception  "§  and  gave  information  of  it  to  the  Department 

*  30th  Congress,  1st  Session,  House  of  Representatives,  Executive 
Documents,  No.  60 :  u  The  delay  has  arisen  solely  from  certain  diffi 
culties  occasioned  by  the  nature  of  the  credentials."  See  the  Letter  of 
Pena  y  Pena  to  Mr.  Slidell,  Dec.  16,  1845.  See  his  letter  also  to  the 
Mexican  Council,  Dec.  11,  1845. 

t  30th  Congress,  1st  Session,  House  of  Representatives,  Executive 
Documents,  No.  60,  p.  32. 

t  Ibid.  p.  54.  $  Ibid.  p.  62. 


<•>  <  PRETEXTS    FOB    WAR. 


at  Washington.  Meanwhile,  the  Union,  the  official  organ, 
had  said,  on  Feb.  10,  1846,  that  letters  had  been  received  to 
the  14th  of  January  from  Mr.  Slidell;  that  he  had  not  then 
"  been  received  by  the  Government  in  his  official  capacity ; 
neither  had  they  declined  his  reception." 

On  March  12th,  Mr.  Buchanan  wrote  to  Mr.  Slidell,  "I 
am  directed  by  the  President  to  instruct  you  not  to  leave  that 
Republic  until  you  shall  have  made  a  formal  demand  to  be 
received  by  the  new  government."* 

On  the  14th  of  January,  Mr.  Slidell  had  stated  that  his 
notes  to  Mr.  Pena  y  Pena  had  "  not  yet  been  considered ;" 
and  he  spoke  of  the  new  minister  of  foreign  relations  as  one 
whom  he  knew  at  heart  to  be  "  decidedly  favorable  to  an 
amicable  adjustment  of  all  questions  pending  between  the 
two  governments."  f 

And  it  was  not  till  March  18th,J  more  than  two  months 
after  the  virtual  war-order  of  Jan.  loth,  that  the  American 
Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  wrote 
home  that  he  had  received  liis  decided  rejection  by  the 
Paredes  Government,  and  that  he  had  demanded  his  pass 
ports.  On  that  very  day  Gen.  Taylor  dated  his  despatch  to 
the  War  Department,§  at  "  El  Sauce,  119  miles  from  Corpus 
Christi,"  and,  of  course,  thus  far  into  a  disputed  territory,  as 
much  as  that  on  the  north-eastern  boundary  in  debate  a  few 
years  before,  between  England  and  the  United  States,  or 
that  portion  between  49°  and  54°  40'  on  the  Pacific  slope, 
negotiated  in  1845-6. 

The  warlike  movements  of  the  United  States  are  seen  by 
these  letters  to  have  been  pushed  forward  independently  of 
the  reception  or  the  rejection  of  Mr.  Slidell.  If  the  defeat 
of  his  mission  was  a  real  cause  of  war,  and  not  a  pretext,  an 
afterthought,  used  to  justify  what  had  been  already  done, 

*  30th  Congress,  1st  Session,  House  of  Representatives,  Executive 
Documents,  No.  60,  p.  64.  I  Ibid.  p.  50. 

\  Ibid,  p,  66.  $  Ibid.  p.  12.3. 


r_  * 

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~  i2r  •'car  T 


40  PREPARATION    OF    WAR. 


CHAPTER    V. 

PREPARATION    OF    WAR. 

"  No,  Sir ;  if  we  would  awaken  the  desire  for  peace  in  the  bosom  of 
England,  —  if  we  would  render  America  invincible  in  battle,  —  ice  must 
prepare  the  heart  of  the  nation  for  the  defence  of  its  rights  and  its  honor, 
by  honestly  telling  the  people  the  real  state  of  the  facts,  and  by  giving 
them  the  reason  for  the  measures  we  adopt."  —  MR.  ALLEX,  in  Senate 
of  the  U.  S.  Dec.  16,  1845. 

IT  was  reserved  to  our  day  to  witness  the  change  of  the 
popular  maxim,  "  in  time  of  peace  prepare  for  icar"  into 
another  rule,  of  even  more  questionable  morality,  "  in 
time  of  peace  prepare  war."  But,  from  a  careful  exam 
ination  of  the  documents  relating  to  the  Annexation  of 
Texas,  and  its  consequences,  and  of  the  leading  newspapers 
of  the  time,  and  the  means  used  to  act  upon  the  public  mind 
before  the  war  broke  out,  we  cannot  avoid  the  conclusion, 
that  a  conflict  with  Mexico  was  early  anticipated,  desired^ 
and  prepare!!  for,  by  those  who  understood  but  too  well  how 
easily  the  war  spirit  could  be  kindled  in  the  heart  of  the 
nation.  Tlio  reasons  assigned  for  the  war  were  but  pre 
tences,  covering  ulterior  designs,  which  it  would  not  do  at 
once  to  disclose  ;  but  which  have,  in  due  succession,  all  come 
out,  and  now  stand  in  their  naked  deformity  before  the 
world :  Conquest,  Dismemberment,  Annexation  of  new  ter 
ritories,  the  extension  of  Slavery,  the  domestic  Slave  Trade, 
and  the  Slave  Power.  /A  distinguished  statesman,  with 
equal  truth  and  severity,  characterized  the  war  as  a  "  war 
of  pretexts."  What  can  prevent  it  from  occupying  that  posi 
tion  on  the  pages  of  candid  and  impartial  history  ? 


PREPARATION    OF   WAR.  41 

To  show  that  we  speak  not  "  without  book  "  on  this  sub 
ject,  let  us  investigate  some  of  the  means  by  which  the  ball 
was  set  in  motion,  and  the  pretences  by  which  its  crushing 
progress  was  justified  after  it  began  to  r-pll. 

From  the  moment  that  Texas  was  virtually  annexed,  in 
March,  1845,  the  clang  of  arms  resounded  through  the  West 
and  South  West.  We  have  already  seen  that  politicians  of 
opposite  parties  declared  the  identity  of  annexation  and  war. 
But  war  did  not  immediately  ensue ;  and,  weak  and  dis 
tracted  as  Mexico  was,  there  was  no  immediate  likelihood  of 
its  occurrence.  Time  might  heal  the  wound.  A  pacific 
administration  was  in  power  in  that  republic,  and  much  was 
to  be  hoped  from  a  conciliatory  policy.  Such  were  the  views 
and  feelings,  now  on  record,  of  many  of  the  friends  of  an 
nexation,  as  well  as  of  its  determined  opponents. 

But  other  counsels  prevailed.  An  endeavor  seemed  forth 
with  to  be  made,  to  irritate,  rather  than  to  tranquillize,  our 
neighbors.  The  frontiers  southward  bristled  with  arms.  In 
1844,  when  the  Treaty  of  Annexation  was  under  considera 
tion,  assurances  had  been  made  to  the  Texan  authorities,  by 
the  United  States,*  that,  during  the  negotiation  and  settle 
ment  of  difficulties,  Texas  should  be  defended  by  the  naval 
and  military  forces  of  this  republic,  in  case  they  conceived 
Mexico  had  any  serious  intention  of  invasion,  and  the 
pledges  were  redeemed.f  But,  in  1845,  the  tone  began  to 
change  from  defence  to  offence. " "jls  soon  as  the  Joint  Reso 
lutions  were  accepted  by  tHeTlfexan  Legislature,  and  before 
the  measure  of  annexation  could  be  perfected,  steps  were 
taken  on  the  part  of  Texas  to  receive,  and  on  the  part  of 
the  United  States  to  send  troops,  ostensibly  to  ward  off 

*  Mr.  Houston's  speech  in  the  U.  S.  Senate,  Feb.  19,  1847.  Also, 
his  Letter  to  the  Texas  Banner,  July  18,  1847. 

t  See  Pres.  Tyler's  Message  to  the  Senate,  May  15,  1844,  with  the 
accompanying  Documents,  28th  Congress,  1st  Session,  Senate,  341, 
pp.  82  and  following. 

4* 


42  PREPARATION    OF    WAR. 

attacks  from  Mexico.  A  formidable  naval  force,  of  nine 
war-ships,  was  placed  in  the  Gulf;  a  squadron  was  de 
spatched  to  the  Pacific  coast ;  an  expedition,  professedly  sci 
entific  in  its  aims,  but  found  capable,  afterwards,  of  being 
converted  into  a  hostile  instrument,  was  equipped  for  Cali 
fornia  and  Oregon,  and  applications  to  enter  it  were  more 
numerous  than  could  be  received.*  In  a  word,  all  the  ele 
ments  began  to  muster  their  tempestuous  powers,  and  brew 
the  hurricane. 

At  this  critical  moment,  the  press,  mighty  engine  for  weal 
or  woe,  interposed  but  too  often  its  vast  influence,  to  fire  the 
warlike  passions  in  our  countrymen.  In  the  summer  of 
1845,  no  less  than  three  long  series  of  essays  appeared  in 
the  organ  of  the  national  administration,  relative  to  our  diffi 
culties  with  Mexico,  and  characterized  by  a  belligerent  tone 
of  thought  and  feeling.  The  distant  valley  of  the  West  was 
agitated  by  "  rumors  of  wars."  Texas  already  snuffed  the 
coming  storm.  Unusual  activity  reigned  in  the  barracks, 
forts,  and  navy  yards  of  the  country.  The  signs  of  the 
times  were  not  to  be  mistaken ;  and  the  wonder  now  is,  that, 
with  all  the  preparations  that  were  made  for  war,  during  the 
year  1845,  any  body  should  have  been  taken  by  surprise 
when  it  came,  in  1846.  They  who  had  watched  the  filling 
of  the  magazine  were  not  startled,  when  the  spark  was  ap 
plied,  to  witness  its  explosion. 

The  following  paragraphs,  from  various  journals  of  that 
period,  will  show  the  temper  of  the  times ;  and,  when  we 
consider  that  the  newspaper  press  has  an  almost  boundless 
power,  both  in  creating  and  expressing  public  opinion  in  the 
United  States,  can  we  hesitate  to  believe,  since  effects  must 
have  a  cause,  that  such  sentences  as  these,  read,  copied, 
caught  up  by  ardent  temperaments,  repeated  from  mouth 
to  mouth,  did  not  a  little  to  precipitate  the  collision  of 
arms  ? 

*  The  Washington  Union,  June  14,  1845. 


PREPARATION    OF    WAR.  >    43 

The  Harrisburg  (Pa.)  Union,  April,  1845,  has  these  re 
marks  on  "  our  Foreign  relations  : "  "  Mexico,  prommcia- 
mento-loviug  Mexico,  threatens  the  United  States  with  all 
sorts  of  perils  short  of  actual  war,  if  the  President  executes 
a  solemn  act  of  Congress,  and  the  expressed  will  of  his 
constituents.  We  pity  Mexico,  torn  as  she  is  by  domestic 
factions,  whose  sole  object  is  to  rob  its  poor  and  suffering 
people ;  but  when  she  talks  of  war  with  a  friendly  nation, 
which  has  spared  her  on  former  occasions,  we  cannot  help  *J 
looking  at  her  situation  and  resources,  and  recollecting  how 
tempting  it  is  to  be  invited  by  aggression  to  conquer  her  ter 
ritory,  and  free  her  enslaved  population  from  their  petty  ty 
rants. 

*  #  #  #  * 

"  The  ports  of  Mexico  on  the  Gulf,  Tampico  and  Vera 
Cruz,  can  be  closed  by  our  cruisers  in  a  few  days'  sail.  Her 
harbors  on  the  Pacific  are  open  and  defenceless,  and  an 
army  marching  from  Texas  would  be  paid  in  its  rout  by  the 
silver  mines  scattered  along  its  path,  and  the  gold,  jewels, 
and  silver  of  the  city  of  Montezuma,  would  reward  its  ad 
venturous  assailants,  while  it  paid  the  debt  of  its  conquest. 
The  settlers  of  Oregon  would  take  permanent  possession  of 
the  Californias,  which  would  thus  be  added  to  our  territory 
on  the  shores  of  the  South  sea. 

"  Let  Mexico  therefore  beware  how  far  she  tempts  us  by     / 
insolent  and  threatening  language."  ^ 

The  Daily  Union  at  Washington,  May  10,  1845,  has  the 
following:  "The  Government  of  the  United  States  has 
been  compelled  in  consequence  of  the  hostile  demonstrations 
on  the  part  of  Mexico,  to  despatch  a  powerful  squadron  to 
the  Gulf,  prepared  to  prevent  or  resist  any  warlike  move 
ments.  The  naval  force  in  the  Pacific  is,  of  course,  appriz 
ed  of  the  posture  of  affairs.  Troops  have  been  assembled 
on  our  Southern  frontier,  ready  to  act  as  circumstances  may 
demand. 


44  PREPARATION    OF    WAR. 

"  These  proceedings,  however,  are  purely  and  exclusively 
defensive.  Unless  Mexico  should  commence  hostilities, 
nothing  will  be  attempted  on  our  side." 

The  Daily  Union,  May  14,  1845,  has  an  extract  from  a 
private  letter  from  New  Orleans  :  "  Are  we  going  to  have 
war  or  not  (with  Mexico)  .  .  .  War  is  all  the  talk  here,  as 
you  may  readily  conceive.  There  are  many  brave  fellows 
among  us  who  are  anxious  to  show  their  mettle."  Continues 
the  Union  in  comment, —  "  Sound  but  the  trumpet,  and  there 
would  pour  volunteers  enough  from  the  valley  of  the  JMis- 
sissippi  alone,  to  overrun  Mexico,  and  subdue  California. 
There  would  scarcely  be  wanting  a  single  regular  soldier 
to  form  the  nucleus  of  twenty-thousand  volunteers." 

The  Nashville  Union  of  May  24th,  quoted  in  the  Washing 
ton  Union  of  May  31,  1845,  discourses  thus:  "Mexico 
may  declare  war,  but  that  will  not  dissolve  the  bonds  of  an 
nexation  ;  it  may  result  in  additional  annexation  ;  and  that 
view  of  the  case  deserves  to  he  well  weighed  in  Mexico  be 
fore  war  is  resorted  to.  In  such  a  war,  it  will  be  found  that 
annexation  will  be  sustained  by  Whigs  as  well  as  Demo 
crats." 

Correspondent  C.  in  Art.  14th,  on  Mexico,  in  the  Union 
May  28th,  says  :  "  The  other  nations  of  the  earth,  must  either 
exclude  her  from  the  rank  which  she  claims  among  them, 
or  must  compel  her  to  observe  those  laws  of  the  government 
to  which  they  voluntarily  and  cheerfully  submit.  We  have 
seen,  that  by  a  timely  resort  to  those  measures  of  coercion 
which  the  circumstances  of  the  case  rendered  necessary, 
France  and  England  have  compelled  her  to  redress  the 
wrongs  which  she  had  perpetrated,  and  to  obey  that  law 
which  she  had  violated.  Were  this  course  universally 
adopted,  Mexico  herself  would  grow  richer  and  happier  as 
well  as  better." 

The  Union  of  June  2d,  predicts,  —  "  The  march  of  the 
Anglo  Saxon  race  is  onward.  They  must  in  the  end  accom- 


PREPARATION    OF    WAR.  45 

plish  their  destiny  —  spreading  far  and  wide  the  great  prin 
ciple  of  self-government ;  and  who  shall  say  how  far  they 
will  prosecute  the  work  ? 

"  We  infinitely  prefer  the  friendly  settlement  of  the  great 
question  now  pending.  It  will  secure  the  peace  and  welfare 
of  the  Mexican  nation.  It  can  now  be  done,  and  it  should 
now  be  accomplished.  For  who  can  arrest  the  torrent  that 
will  pour  onward  to  the  West  ?  The  road  to  California  will 
be  open  to  us.  Who  will  stay  the  march  of  our  Western 
people  ?  Our  Northern  brethren,  also,  are  looking  toward 
that  inviting  region,  with  much  more  interest  than  those  of 
the  South.  They,  too,  will  raise  the  cry  of  Westward,  ho  ! 
However  strongly  many  of  them  may  now  oppose  annexa 
tion,  yet,  let  California  be  thrown  open  to  their  ambition, 
and  the  torrent  even  of  their  population  will  roll  westwardly 
to  the  Pacific." 

Some  papers  lifted  up  a  warning  voice  against  tliis  war- 
cry.  Thus  the  Cincinnati  Gazette,  in  reference  to  the  last 
article,  justly  remarks :  "  We  feel,  as  we  fear,  the  spirit  of 
the  article  in  The  Union.  It  bodes  no  good ;  it  is  evil.  Ho ! 
Westward !  Halls  of  the  Montezumas,  and  the  mines  of 
Mexico,  would  start  into  being  20,000  volunteers  .'  Ay,  so 
it  would.  What  then  ?  Why,  in  this  valley,  teeming  with 
life,  a  spirit  of  aggrandizement,  —  of  mad  and  maddening 
excitement,  —  of  a  selfish  and  burning  thirst  of  power,  —  of 
military  excitement,  —  of  conquest,  in  its  worst  and  most 
detestable  form,  —  would  rule  as  a  master  tyrant,  sweeping 
all  before  it,  and,  as  sure  as  it  lives,  desolating  the  hope  of 
the  virtuous  and  the  free.  Let  all  parties  shun  this  spirit  as 
they  would  dishonor.  Let  the  country  smite  it  down  in  its 
early  manhood,  ere  that  manhood  be  smitten  unto  death,  by 
its  foul  and  degrading  breath." 

The  Houston  Star,  of  May  24,  1845,  says:  "We  are 
happy  to  state  here,  that  arrangements  have  been  made  to 
obtain  accurate  information  of  the  movements  of  the  Mex- 


46  PREPARATION    OF    WAR. 

ican  forces  ;  and  it  is  believed  that  our  government  will  be 
prepared  to  repel  any  incursions  of  Mexican  troops  into  the 
disputed  territory  (previously  stated  to  be  the  territory 
'  West  of  the  Nueces.'  ") 

The  Washington  Union,  of  June  llth,  advises  that  "the 
Texans  themselves  should  collect  their  own  volunteers,  and 
march  to  repel  the  Mexicans  from  their  borders.  If  the 
troops  of  Mexico  have  crossed  the  Rio  Grande,  it  would  be 
better  for  Texas  to  clear  her  own  confines  at  once,  than  wait 
for  the  movements  of  our  regulars.  We  hazard  nothing  in 
saying  that  such,  too,  would  be  the  decided  preference  of  our 
own  government.  We  had  understood,  indeed,  that  such  was 
also  the  determination  of  the  Texans,  if  the  Mexicans  should 
be  found  hovering  in  the  country  between  the  Rio  Grande 
and  the  Nueces.  We  do  not  mean  to  say,  that  if  the  Texans 
should  be  found  wanting  to  themselves,  we  should  suffer  a 
hostile  foot  to  tread  her  legitimate  soil,  as  soon  as  her  Con 
gress  and  her  Convention  have  ratified  our  propositions." 

The  New  Orleans  Picayune,  of  June  7th,  says  :  "  We  have 
received  intelligence,  by  this  arrival,  to  the  effect,  that  the 
Mexicans  are  really  concentrating  a  large  force  on  the  Rio 
Grande,  preparatory  to  war,  in  case  Texas  should  agree  to 
Annexation.  Our  informant  states,  further,  that^the  feeling 
in  the  latter  country  is  thoroughly  warlike ;  the  talk  is  of 
nothing  else  than  a  brush  with  Mexico,  if  she  wishes  it." 

The  Union,  of  June  23d,  confesses  :  "  We  are  for  peace, 
but  it  must  be  an  honorable  peace.  We  are  for  war,  if  the 
rights  and  honor  of  our  country  demand  it.  This  is  our  true 
position." 

Otsego,  a  correspondent  in  The  Union,  of  June  Oth,  writes  : 
"  Ten  years  ago,  our  country  rang  with  applause  of  the 
heroes  of  San  Jacinto.  It  was  a  New  Orleans  victory,  so 
far  as  Texas  was  concerned,  and  was  universally  regarded  as 
a  successful  termination  of  the  brief  but  glorious  contest  she 
had  waged  for  national  freedom." 


PREPARATION    OF    WAR.  47 

"In  spite  of  the  active  exertions  of  its  opponents,  open 
or  disguised,  it  is  hardly  a  figure  of  speech  to  say,  that  An 
nexation  is  a  thing  of  the  past.  Its  substance  was  obtained  in 
the  determination  of  the  Texan  people.  They  are  about  to 
supply  the  forms,  when  this  great  American  question  will  pro 
ceed  steadily,  and,  it  is  hoped  and  believed,  peacefully,  to  its 
fulfilment.  Yet,  this  may  not  be.  Madness  is  sometimes 
inflicted  upon  nations,  as  upon  man ;  and,  if  it  be  true  that 
the  Deity,  in  his  inscrutable  wisdom,  first  dements  the  people 
whom  he  would  destroy,  it  may  be  that  the  time  is  not  dis 
tant,  when  the  banner  of  freedom  will  float  on  her  hill  tops, 
and  the  Plaza  of  Mexico  be  the  camping  ground  of  an  Ame 
rican  army." 

The  New  Orleans  Picayune,  of  June  24th,  says :  "  We 
heard  nothing  of  the  rumor  ourselves,  (that  the  government 
had  ordered  all  the  troops  on  the  Sabine  to  advance  upon 
the  Rio  Grande,  to  repel  the  menaced  irruption  of  the  Mex 
icans  upon  the  territory  of  Texas,)  but  we  must  say  that  we 
had  rather  see  our  troops  marching  towards  the  Rio  Grande, 
than  to  any  other  quarter  of  the  habitable  world." 

Mr.  Shannon,  who  had  just  returned  from  Mexico,  where 
he  had  been  Minister  Plenipotentiary,  in  a  letter  of  July  2d, 
to  Mr.  Buchanan,  Secretary  of  State,  writes :  "  "While  it 
may  be  expected  that  these  drafts  (the  ones  that  had  not  yet 
been  honored  by  the  Mexican  government,  and  that  included 
two  instalments,  amounting  to  $275,000)  will  be  paid  by  Mex 
ico,  so  soon  as  her  financial  abilities  will  enable  her  to  do  so, 
without  regard  to  the  future  relations  of  the  two  countries, 
I  do  not  feel  justified  in  giving  you  any  assurance  that  the 
remaining  instalments  will  be  paid,  until  the  difficulties  exist 
ing  between  the  two  countries  are  finally  adjusted,  or  our 
government  shall  adopt  strong  measures,  in  order  to  coerce 
Mexico  into  a  compliance  with  her  treaty  stipulations." 

Tlie  Union,  of  July  18th,  quotes  from  the  Missouri  Exposi 
tor,  an  extract  from  a  letter  dated  at  Taos,  New  Mexico : 


48  PREPARATION    OF    WAR. 

"The  glorious  spirit  of  Annexation  is  spreading,  like  a 
prairie-fire  up  the  Rio  del  Norte,  and  rattling  the  dried 
bones  in  New  Mexico.  *  * 

"  Both  Americans  and  Mexicans  are  making  large  pur 
chases  of  land  upon  the  streams  running  into  the  Rio  del 
Norte  and  Arkansas,  and  anticipating  Annexation.  Ex- 
Governor  Armijo  is  stirring  up  and  concentrating  around 
him  the  means  of  ejecting  Mexican  domination,  and  will 
shortly  succeed  in  so  doing." 

A  plan  of  the  war  is  sketched  in  a  communication  to  the 
Union  of  Aug.  16th:  «  4,000  militia  and  2,000  regulars  in 
Texas,  2,000  militia  and  1,500  regulars  in  other  parts  of 
U.  S.  9,500  regulars,  25,000  volunteers,  =  34,500.  With 
these  begin  the  forward  march.  Go  a-head!  the  word,  and 
prudence  and  watchfulness  to  guide.  Pass  the  Rio  Grande. 
Leave  a  military  force  to  maintain  the  captured  places  in 
Mexico,  and  keep  up  our  line  of  communication  with  our 
base  of  operations,  and  with  30,000  men  advance  direct 
upon  Mexico.  Vera  Cruz  should  be  taken,"  etc. 

In  this  same  month  of  August,  1845,  Major-Gen.  Games 
made  a  requisition  on  the  Governor  of  Louisiana,  without 
any  orders,  it  was  said,  from  the  Secretary  of  War,  for  2,000 
men,  and  the  troops  were  received  and  sent  on  to  the  fron 
tiers.  The  military  spirit  was  rampant  in  the  capital  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley.  The  War  Department  of  the  United 
States  was  put  in  a  state  of  unusual  activity ;  arms  were 
made  ready  and  despatched  even  on  the  sacred  day  of  rest ; 
ships  of  war  were  refitted,  maimed,  and  commissioned,  and 
all  was  made  ready.  Gen.  Gaines  reviewed  the  troops  in 
New  Orleans  on  Sunday.  Gen.  Patterson,  of  Philadelphia, 
came  to  Washington  to  offer  his  services  to  the  President,  to 
raise  6,000  volunteers.  Hon.  R.  M.  Johnson,  ex  Vice-Pres 
ident  of  the  United  States,  in  a  letter  to  the  President,  dated 
Aug.  25th,  offered  himself  and  the  brave  Kentuckians  for  the 
cause.  Are  not  all  these  things  faithfully  recorded  in  the 


PREPARATION    OF   WAR.  49 

chronicles  of  that  period  ?  and  are  they  not  significant  facts 
in  the  history  of  this  war  ?  The  movements  of  Gen.  Taylor 
to  Corpus  Christ!  were  eagerly  copied  into  all  the  journals. 
The  Oregon  discussion  kept  up  an  excitement  during  the 
session  of  Congress,  1845-6,  favorable  to  warlike  prepar 
ations,  and  training  the  people  to  be  familiar  with  the  idea 
of  a  resort  to  arms.  The  cry  had  been  loud,  "All  of  Oregon 
or  none ;  now  or  never ;  fifty-four  forty,  or  fight ;"  and  all 
this  inflammatory  patriotism  was  easily  turned,  when  the 
occasion  served,  into  another  channel,  and  the  sword  drawn 
against  Mexico  instead  of  England.  The  conflict  burst  upon 
the  country  suddenly,  at  last,  and  took  many  by  surprise ; 
but  had  they  watched  the  course  of  public  affairs  more 
closely,  they  would  have  anticipated  from  such  causes  as 
had  been  diligently  set  in  operation,  the  very  results  which 
followed.  The  effect  on  Mexico  of  these  warlike  rumors 
and  preparations,  is  well  described  in  the  following  article : 

The  Union  of  Jan.  12,  1846,  says,  "  Extracts  from  the 
papers  of  Matamoras,  published  in  the  Vera  Orusano,  speak 
of  incursions  of  the  American  troops,  of  detachments  of  par 
ties  of  forty  or  fifty  soldiers,  reconnoitering  and  spying  out  the 
land  The  position  and  movements  of  the  United  States' 
troops  at  Corpus  Christi,  ever  since  Gen.  Taylor  has  been 
there,  have  excited  much  alarm,  fear,  and  jealousy,  in  the 
minds  of  the  Mexicans.  They  seem  to  be  hourly  expecting 
that  the  United  States'  troops  are  about  to  march  upon 
Matamoras,  to  seize  upon  that  place,  and  thence,  perhaps,  to 
march  to  capture  some  others  of  their  cities." 

The  state  of  feeling,  too,  in  the  United  States,  among  great 
numbers  of  the  people,  was,  probably,  but  too  correctly 
represented  in  the  two  sentences  below,  emanating  from 
two  great  commercial  and  political  cities. 

The  New  Orleans  Picayune  of  January,  1846,  says,  "  Be 
the  result  of  the  rebellion  (pronunciamento  of  Paredes)  what 

5 


50  PREPARATION    OF   THE   WAK. 

it  may,  it  seems  to  us  that  our  relations  with  Mexico  should 
not  be  longer  kept  in  a  state  of  doubtful  peace." 

The  New  York  Courier,  of  the  same  date,  said,  "  We  hope 
that  our  Government  will  promptly  force  our  Mexican 
affairs  to  a  crisis." 

With  this  development  of  the  spirit  of  conquest  in  the 
heart  of  the  American  people,  with  the  extended  means 
which  had  been  put  in  readiness  by  land  and  sea  to  carry 
on  war,  and  with  the  press  from  almost  all  quarters  sounding 
the  watchword  of  battle,  we  are  astonished  not  that  the 
crisis  of  blood  came  so  unexpectedly,  but  that  it  was  so  long 
delayed. 

There  were  certain  causes  assigned  for  the  war,  as  the 
old  question  of  claims,  and  the  new  one  of  boundaries,  the 
threatened  invasion  of  an  American  State,  and  the  rejection 
of  our  minister  at  Mexico  ,*  but  they  have  already  been 
partially  considered.  They  were,  however,  better  called 
pretexts,  than  causes  of  war.  They  cloaked  the  designs  of 
V  ambition.  They  were  ready  stimulants  to  national  pride  in 
the  hands  of  expert  moulders  of  public  opinion.  But  the 
real  circumstances  that  predisposed  our  countrymen  to  wary 
and  the  deep  main-spring  that  moved  all  the  chief  agents 
and  advocates  in  the  premises,  we  have  already  laid  open. 
The  steps  taken  to  accelerate  the  tremendous  crisis,  to  rouse 
millions  of  minds  to  sanguinary  sentiments,  and  pour  forth 
fire  and  sword  upon  Mexico,  have  been  indicated  in  this 
chapter.  In  succeeding  ones,  we  propose  to  "  count  the 
cost "  of  our  national  pastime  in  arms,  as  it  respects  prop 
erty,  life,  and  all  the  elements  of  human  prosperity  and 
*  happiness. 


ARGUMENTS    FOR    PEACE.  51 


CHAPTER    VI. 

THE   BEGINNING   AND    ENDING    OF    THE    WAR    ARGUMENTS 
FOR    PEACE. 

"  AVe  daily  make  great  improvements  in  natural,  there  is  one  I  wish 
to  see  in  moral,  philosophy.  —  the  discovery  of  a  plan  that  would  in 
duce  and  oblige  nations  to  settle  their  disputes  without  first  cutting  one 
another's  throats.  When  will  human  nature  be  sufficiently  improved 
to  see  the  advantage  of  this  ?"  —  FKANKLIX. 

ALTHOUGH  serious  difficulties  existed  between  the  United 
States  and  Mexico  previously  to  the  advance  of  Gen.  Tay 
lor  from  the  Nueces  to  the  Rio  Grande,  yet  no  doubt  war 
might  have  been  averted,  had  all  parties  concerned  been 
deeply  convinced  of  the  blessings  of  peace,  the  guilt  and 
horrors  of  a  conflict,  and  the  necessity  of  finally  resorting  to 
negotiations,  because  the  sword  itself  could  settle  nothing. 
"We  had  been  in  as  great  straits  before,  and  had  come  out 
of  the  clanger  without  shedding  one  drop  of  human  blood. 
Granted  that  this  was  a  peculiarly  exasperating  case  of 
spoliations  upon  our  commerce  ;*  yet  had  not  the  United 
States  a  long  list  of  grievances  of  this  kind  to  adjust  with 
several  European  'powers  at  the  close  of  the  wars  of  lSTa- 

4#  *  Yet  so  late  as  Aug.  5,  1836,  Gen.  Jackson  said  in  a  letter  to  Gov. 
Cannon,  of  Tennessee,  <;  Should  Mexico  insult  our  national  flag,  in 
vade  our  territory,  or  interrupt  our  citizens  in  the  lawful  pursuits 
which  are  guarantied  to  them  by  treaty,  then  the  Government  will 
promptly  repel  tho  insult,  and  seek  reparation  for  the  injury.  But  it 
does  not  apptar  that  dffcntt*  of  this  kind  htfve  been,  committed  by 
Mexico1.* 


52  ARGUMENTS    FOR   PEACE. 

poleon,  and  never  thought  it  necessary  to  make  the  appeal  to 
brute  force  ?  Granted  that  this  was  a  case  of  violated  sove 
reignty  and  trespass  upon  the  rights  of  American  citizens ; 
yet  we  had  pacifically  negotiated  with  England,  but  a  few 
years  before,  the  difficult  affairs  growing  out  of  the  "  Caro 
line  "  and  the  "  Patriot  War,"  and  the  storm-cloud  of  danger 
was  scattered.  Granted  that  it  was  a  case  of  deferred  pay 
ment  of  acknowledged  claims ;  yet  France  owed  us  more  and 
longer  than  Mexico,  and  we  bore  and  forbore ;  and  when, 
after  long  but  peaceful  urgency,  we  obtained  the  money,  our 
burning  sense  of  justice  suddenly  congealed,  and  we  have 
not  to  this  day  paid  over  what  we  have  received  to  the  in 
dividual  claimants  for  damages !  Granted  that  it  was  a 
most  delicate  and  difficult  question  of  boundary  lines ;  still 
we  had  hardly  seen  the  ink  dry  on  "  the  treaty  of  Washing 
ton,"  and  the  negotiations  of  Oregon,  by  which  our  limits 
were  adjusted  on  the  north  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific. . 
What  but  the  lust  of  territory,  and  the  schemes  of  annex 
ation,  and  the  purposed  extension  of  slavery  and  the  slave 
power,  prevented  the  same  results  in  our  Mexican  difficulties 
on  the  south  ?  As  "  a  masterly  inactivity "  had  averted  an 
Oregon  war  with  Great  Britain,  so  might  it  have  averted  a 
Texas  war  with  Mexico.  Never  was  a  liner  argument  sup 
plied  to  the  cause  of  peace,  as  demonstrating  the  superiority 
of  her  counsels  to  those  of  war,  than  is  afforded  by  the 
beginning  of  the  contest  with  Mexico.  Never  was  there  a 
more  conclusive  exhibition  of  the  truth  that  what  the  advo 
cates  of  war  call  ~"the  necessity"  of  hostilities,  is  a  necessity 
of  their  own  creation,  or,  at  least,  of  their  own  exaggeration, 
and  has  no  reasonable  foundation  in  national  honor,  rightly 
understood,  or  patriotism,  truly  felt.* 

*  "  Mr.  Webster's  admirable  letter  to  Lord  Ashburton  on  the  subject 
of  Impressment,  did  more  to  settle  that  question  than  a  hundred  battles 
fliuld  have  done."  —  Ps.  DETVEY'B  PEACE  ADDRESB,  May  29,  1848, 
p.  9. 


ARGUMENTS    FOR   PEACE.  53 

The  contrast  of  our  conduct  towards  Great  Britain  and 
that  towards  Mexico,  is  very  marked.  It  was  said  that 
"our  title  to  the  whole  of  Oregon  was  clear  and  unques 
tionable,"  hut  the  fleets  and  armies  of  the  United  States 
were  not  immediately  despatched  to  take  possession.  The 
final  decision  was  delayed  till  the  next  session  of  Congress, 
and  submitted  to  their  wisdom.  It  was  finally  settled  by 
negotiation,  and,  notwithstanding  the  claim  to  54°  40',  the 
line  of  the  treaty  was  fixed  at  49°.  It  was  conceded,  on  the 
other  hand,  that  the  boundaries  of  Texas  were  not  "  clear 
and  unquestionable,"  but  were  matters  of  future  negotiation ; 
the  final  ceremonies  of  annexation  were  not  concluded  till 
Dec.  22,  1845;  but  the  forces  of  the  United  States  had 
already  taken  up  threatening  positions  in  the  Gulf,  on  the 
Pacific,  and  upon  the  Nueces  ;  rumors  of  war  were  rife  ;  and 
although  Congress  was  in  session  at  the  time,  a  secret  order 
was  despatched  to  Gen.  Taylor,  on  Jan.  13,  1846,  —  less 
than  a  month  after  annexation  was  finally  adjusted,  — to  ad 
vance  up  to  the  Rio  Grande,  into  a  country  which  the  ar 
ticles  of  the  Joint  Resolution  themselves  implied  was  debat 
able  ground.  Could  any  key  to  such  different  measures  in 
the  two  cases  be  detected  in  the  fact  that  Great  Britain  was 
strong,  and  that  Mexico  was  weak  ?  or,  in  the  further  fact, 
that  Oregon  was  free  territory  and  was  not  wanted,  and  that 
Texas  was  a  slave  State  and  was  wanted,  and  wanted,  too, 
up  to  the  extreme  limit  to  which  she  had  ever  swelled  her 
revolutionary  pretensions  ? 

It  is  very  true  that  Mexico  was  deeply  incensed  against 
us  on  account  of  the  annexation  of  Texas,  that  her  Minister 
called  for  his  passports  and  returned  home  after  that  mea 
sure  was  passed  by  Congress,  and  that  the  further  payment 
of  the  claims  was  suspended,  and  that  Mexico  refused  to 
accredit  Mr.  Slidell  as  a  Resident  Minister.  Many  states 
men  of  all  parties  in  the  United  States  did  not  blame  her 
indignation.  A  former  President  of  the  Republic  of  Texas 

5* 


54  ARGUMENTS    FOU   PEACE. 

said  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  that  we  "  annexed 
war,"  when  we  annexed  Texas.  But  though  war  might 
exist  de  jure  in  the  judgment  of  the  Mexican  Government, 
since  it  was  through  the  instrumentality  of  citizens  of  the 
South  and  West  that  Texan  independence  was  secured.* 
yet  war  did  not  exist  de  facto.  The  return  home  of  Al 
monte,  the  Mexican  Minister  at  Washington,  did  not  neces 
sitate  the  interruption  of  all  friendly  relations  between  the 
two  countries ;  witness  the  recent  dismissal  of  the  English 
Minister,  Bulwer,  from  the  court  of  Spain.  No  declaration 
of  the  final  non-payment  of  claims,  still  due,  had  been*  an 
nounced  on  the  part  of  the  indebted  nation.  Three  instal 
ments  out  of  twenty  had  been  punctually  paid,  and  the 
fourth  was  receipted  for,  but  not  received.  Mexico  but 
paused  to  see  what  would  be  the  end  of  these  things.  She 
did  not  reject  a  commissioner  f  empowered  to  settle  the 
question  of  boundaries,  but  she  refused  a  resident  minister, 
as  his  reception  would  imply  that  the  relations  between  the 
two  countries  were  entirely  amicable.  The  questions  at 
issue  must  first  be  settled,  and  then  she  would  be  prepared 
to  resume  all  the  forms  of  a  mutual  good  understanding. 

We  see,  therefore,  by  this  rapid  glance,  that  although 
there  were  serious  irritations  and  recriminations  between 
the  parties,  there  was  no  actual  war ;  not  a  sword  had  been 
drawn.  There  was  still  hope,  that  by  reason  and  forbear 
ance  on  both  sides,  the  term  "sister  republics"  would  not 
cease  to  be  even  a  figure  of  speech.^  Similar  difficulties 

*  The  language  of  Mr.  Van  Buren  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Hammctt, 
April  20,  1844,  on  the  Texan  question,  wa*,  i;Xo'hing  is  either  more 
true  or  more  extensively  known  than  that  Texas  was  wrested  from 
Mexico,  and  her  independence  established,  through  the  instrumentality 
of  citizens  of  the  United  States." 

t  30th  Congress,  2nd  Session,  House  of  Representatives,  Executive 
Documents,  No.  60.  pp.  16,  17,  24.  25,  20.  30.  31. 

J  "  Genwal  Worth.  Has  Mexico  declared  war  against  the  United 
States? 


ARGUMENTS   FOR   PEACE.  55 

had  been  peacefully  despatched  before  in  our  international 
history,  and  none  presumed  to  doubt  that  the  same  result 
would  follow  now.  It  was  the  nineteenth  century  of  the 
Christian  era.  The  world  had  grown  wiser  and  better, 
Christian  ideas  had  begun  to  enter  cabinets  and  congresses. 
Negotiations  were  more  satisfactory,  as  well  as  more  inno 
cent  instruments  than  bayonets.  War  was  an  unpopular 
game,  and  public  opinion  had  joined  with  the  higher  voices 
of  a  Christian  civilization  in  branding  it  as  the  master  crime 
of  the  earth.  So  most  men  felt,  wrote,  and  spoke. 

There  appeared  to  be  no  pressing  exigency  that  required 
an  instantaneous  settlement  of  the  long-standing  difficulties. 
No  new  invasion  of  Texas  was  seriously  meditated  by  her 
old  enemy.*  Mexico  had  not  the  sinews  of  war.  Time 
would  heal  her  wounded  honor  and  pride.  A  handsome 
bonus  for  the  brilliant  gem,  plucked  from  her  coronet,  might 
be  found  in  remitting  a  portion  or  the  whole  of  the  instal 
ments  still  outstanding.  We  had  waited  with  other  nations 
until  they  had  recovered  their  reason ;  why  could  we  not  do 
the  same  with  Mexico?  We  had  borne  long  and  patiently 
•with  the  old  monarchies  of  Europe,  we  should  naturally 
treat,  it  might  be  supposed,  with  unusual  tenderness  and 
long-suffering  the  young  republic  at  our  side. 

But  the  military  forces  of  the  United  States  were  first 

*'  Geiifral  Vega.  No 

u  General  Worth.  Are  the  two  countries  still  at  peace  ? 

u  General  Vega.  Yes.  —  Minutes  of  an  Interview  Ixiticeen  General  Worlh^ 
f>f  the  United  S'.ntes1  army,  and  General  Vega,  of  the  Mexican  army,  at 
Jfataiuoras,  March  23,  1846.  30th  Congress,  1st  Session,  House  of 
Rcjjiv-ientativ.es,  Ex.  Doc.  No.  60,  p.  136. 

u  7/o.s/ 'lilies'"  (still  not  declared  war)  "may  now  be  considered  as 
commenced"  —  General  Taylor's  Letter  to  the  Department,  April  26, 
1 846.  same  Documents. 

*  JVIr.  Kaufman,  of  Texas,  said  in  the  Senate.  July  27,  1848,  that 
'*  the  annexation  of  Texas  was  the  causa,  but  not  the  immediate  or 
accessary  cause,  of  the  late  war  with  Mexico." 


56  ARGUMENTS   FOR   PEACE. 

advanced  to  Corpus  Christ!  in  the  summer  of  1845,  with 
the  ostensible  purpose  of  protecting  the  new  State  of  Texas.* 
Not  that  any  imminent  danger  threatened.  No  army  of 
invasion  was  mustering  against  her.  At  the  most,  only 
some  windy,  menaces,  which  the  sagacious  estimated  at  their 
true  value,  were  aimed  at  her  security.  Mexico  was  deeply 
engaged  in  her  own  affairs  at  home.  She  had  little  time 
or  means  to  attend  to  truants  abroad.  Revolution  chased 
revolution,  and  leaders  rose  and  fell  on  the  stormy  sea  of 
her  politics.  She  was  in  no  state  to  wage  a  war  of  re-con 
quest  ;  and  we  believe  most  firmly  that  it  was  not  in  her 
heart  to  win  back  her  lost  province  at  the  tremendous  haz 
ard  of  a  war  with  the  strongest  power  on  the  western  con 
tinent.  Therefore,  although  Dr.  Charming  had  said  in  1836, 
that  "to  annex  Texas  is  to  declare  perpetual  war  with 
Mexico  ;"f  though  Mr.  Forsyth,  Secretary  of  State,  when 
the  plan  of  annexation  was  proposed  by  Texas  in  1837,  had 
replied,  that  "  so  long  as  Texas  shall  remain  at  war,  while 
the  United  States  are  at  peace  with  her  adversary,  the 
proposition  of  the  Texan  Minister  Plenipotentiary  (for  an 
nexation)  necessarily  involves  the  question  of  war  with  that 
adversary  ;"£  and  Mr.  Van  Buren  had  written,  that  "  we 
cannot  avoid  the  conclusion,  that  the  immediate  annexation 
of  Texas  would  draw  after  it  a  war  with  Mexico  ;"§  and 
Mr.  Clay,  in  the  same  year,  had  used  the  words  "  annex 
ation  and  war  with  Mexico  are  identical  ;"j|  and  though  a 
Texan  chief  magistrate  had,  as  already  quoted,  declared  the 
same,  after  the  deed  was  consummated ;  yet  no  immediate 
acts  of  war  did  follow.  Mexico  did  not  refuse  to  receive  a 

*  30th  Congress,  2nd  Session,  House  of  Representatives,  Ex.  Doc. 
Ko.  60,  pp.  79  -  93. 

t  Works,  vol.  2,  pp.  206,  207, 

J  28th  Congress,  1st  Session,  Senate,  No.  341,  p.  114. 

$  His  Letter  to  Mr.  Hammet,  April  20,  1844. 

y  Mr.  Clay's  Raleigh  Letter. 


ARGUMENTS   FOR   PEACE.  57 

special  commissioner  to  treat  of  disputed  questions  and 
boundaries,  and  we  affirm  what  will  be  the  eternal  verity  of 
history,  as  we  believe,  when  we  say  that  facts  demonstrate 
there  would  have  been  no  war  after  the  erection  of  Texas 
into  one  of  the  States  of  the  American  Union,  had  Gen. 
Taylor  never  removed  his  camp  from  the  banks  of  the 
Nueces  to  those  of  the  Rio  Grande.  It  was  peculiarly  a 
case  for  cool,  calm  deliberation,  negotiation,  dignified  for 
bearance,  in  which  the  greater  power  would  lose  no  honor, 
but  would  gain  much,  by  a  temperate  and  conciliating  course 
with  the  weaker  one.  No  final  door  of  conference  was 
closed,  and  much  was  to  be  hoped  from  that  healing  efficacy 
of  time,  which  soothes  at  once  the  griefs  of  a  nation  as 
those  of  the  humblest  of  its  citizens. 

But  on  the  13th  of  January,  1846,  as  before  stated,  the 
fatal  oix.lcr  was  issued  by  the  American  Executive,  by  which 
Gen.  Taylor  was  directed  to  advance  and  occupy,  with  the 
troops  under  his  command,  "  positions  on  or  near  the  east 
bank  of  the  Rio  del  NorVe,"  as  soon  as  it  could  be  conven 
iently  done.  How  little  this  measure  was  necessary  for  the 
protection  of  Texas,  or  to  ward  off  any  threatened  or  sus 
pected  invasion,  is  apparent  from  the  letters  of  the  com- 
mander-in-chief,  who  was  on  the  spot,  and  knew  what  was 
going  on,  written  to  the  Secretary  of  War  at  home.*  Aug. 
15,  1845,  Gen.  Taylor  writes,  "Nor  do  I  fear  that  the  re 
ported  concentration  of  troops  at  Matamoras  is  for  any  pur 
pose  of  invasion."  Aug.  2()th,  "  Caravans  of  traders  arrive 
occasionally  from  the  Rio  Grande,  but  bring  no  news  of 
importance.  They  represent  that  there  are  no  regular 
troops  on  that  river,  except  at  Matamoras,  and  do  not  seem 

*  See  this  whole  correspondence  in  30th  Congress,  2nd  Session, 
House  of  Representatives,  Ex.  Doc.  No.  60.  The  President  said  in 
his  annual  message,  Dec.  1845,  that  the  forces  of  the  United  States 
were  in  a  position  (on  the  Nueces)  "  to  defend  our  own  and  the  rights 
of  Texas."  Why  then  were  they  advanced  to  the  Rio  Grande  ? 


58  ARGUMENTS   FOR  PEACE. 

to  be  aware  of  any  preparations  for  a  demonstration  on  this 
bank  of  the  river."  Sept.  6th,  "  I  have  the  honor  to  report 
that  a  confidential  agent,  despatched  some  days  since  to 
Matamoras,  has  returned,  and  reports  that  no  extraordinary 
preparations  are  going  forward  there."  Oct.  llth,  "Re 
cent  arrivals  from  the  Rio  Grande  bring  no  news  of  a  dif 
ferent  aspect  from  what  I  reported  in  my  last."  Jan.  7, 
1846,  "  A  recent  scout  of  volunteers  from  San  Antonio 
struck  the  river  near  Presidio,  Rio  Grande,  and  the  com 
mander  reports  everything  quiet  in  that  quarter."  Feb. 
1 6th,  "  Many  reports  will  doubtless  reach  the  Department, 
giving  exaggerated  accounts  of  Mexican  preparations  to 
resist  our  advance,  if  not  indeed  to  attempt  an  invasion  of 
Texas.  Such  reports  have  been  circulated  even  at  this 
place,  and  owe  their  origin  to  personal  interests  connected 
with  the  stay  of  the  army  here.  I  trust  that  they  will  re 
ceive  no  attention  at  the  War  Department." 

If  all  were  thus  tranquil,  and  hopeful  of  peace,  why  did  the 
world  hear  that  thunder-clap  in  a  clear  sky,  that  the  Ameri 
can  army  had  changed  their  quarters  150  miles  further  West? 
But,  to  those  who  had  fathomed  the  deep  purpose  of  the 
Annexation  of  Texas,  "the  trumpet  gave  no  uncertain 
sound,"  as  it  heralded  the  march  over  that  desert  prairie ; 
for  its  every  note  rang  of  conquest,  new  additions  of  terri 
tory,  and  the  expansion  of  Southern  institutions.  Is  not 
this  true  ?  and,  if  true,  should  it  not  now  be  as  fearlessly 
spoken,  as  it  was  then  daringly  done  ?  We  are  no  section- 
ista,  or  disunionists,  or  partisans ;  but  the  truth  must  out, 
else  it  were  better  that  every  lip  were  cold,  and  every  tongue 
dumb.  We  consider  the  war  had  virtually  begun,  the  mo 
ment  Gen.  Taylor  had  struck  his  tents  at  Corpus  Christi. 
The  door  of  conciliation  might  then  be  considered  as  shut 
and  barred.  The  Rubicon  was  crossed. 

The  next  step  in  this  argument  for  peace,  drawn  from  the 
commencement  of  the  war,  is  to  consider  the  boundary 


ARGUMENTS    FOR   PEACE.  59 

question.  Who  was  the  aggressor?  Difficulties  existed, 
but  not  war  de  facto.  Who  applied  the  spark  that  fired  the 
magazine?  On  which  side  was  war  an  offensive,  and  on 
which  side  a  defensive  act  ?  And  here  it  is  to  be  observed, 
that  whichever  party  in  such  a  case  first  assumes  active  hos 
tilities,  has  much  to  answer  for.  It  is  no  light  matter  to 
"  Cry  havoc  ;  and  let  slip  the  dogs  of  war."  And  though  in 
such  events  both  sides  are  always  to  be  blamed  for  pushing 
their  quarrels  into  the  neighborhood  of  such  an  awful  extre 
mity,  yet  a  peculiar  guilt  rests  upon  the  invader,  who  strikes 
the  first  blow. 

It  is  conceded,  in  all  quarters,  that  there  was  a  boundary 
question  between  Mexico  and  the  United  States.  The  offi 
cial  documents,  on  both  sides,  demonstrate  this  fact  in  the 
strongest  manner.  The  Resolutions  that  authorized  Texas 
to  annex  herself  to  the  Union,  bore  this  fact  on  their  face. 
The  language  of  one  was  :  "  First,  said  State  to  be  formed, 
subject  to  the  adjustment  by  this  Government  of  all  ques 
tions  of  boundary,  that  may  arise  with  other  governments." 
The  clause  "  other  governments,"  can  have  no  reference  to 
any  power  but  Mexico ;  because  Texas  borders  upon  no 
other  country,  except  the  United  States,  to  which  it  was 
annexed. 

Mr.  Ashley,  of  Arkansas,  when  advocating  annexation  in 
the  United  States  Senate,  said :  *  "  The  third  (his  own  reso 
lution)  speaks  for  itself,  and  enables  the  United  States  to 
settle  the  boundary  between  Mexico  and  the  United  States 
properly.  And  I  will  here  add,  that  the  present  boundaries 
of  Texas,  I  learn  from  Judge  Ellis,  the  President  of  the 
Convention  that  formed  the  Constitution  of  Texas,  and  also 
a  member  of  the  first  Legislature  under  that  Constitution, 
were  fixed  as  they  now  are,  (that  is,  extending  to  the  Rio 

*  Appendix  to  the  Congressional  Globe,  28th  Congress,  2d  Session, 
p.  288. 


60  ARGUMENTS    FOR   PEACE. 

Grande,)  solely  and  professedly  with  a  view  of  having  a  largo 
margin  in  ihe  negotiation  U'itli  Mexico,  and  not  with  the  ex 
pectation  of  retaining  them  as  they  now  exist  in  their  statute 
book."  Kven  Texas  had  not  yet  ventured  to  grasp  such  a 
lion's  share,  except  as  an  advantageous  position  -to  occupy 
\vhcn  she  went  into  negotiation. 

When  the  project  of  annexing  Texas  by  a  treaty  was  in 
process,  Mr.  Calhoun,  „  Secretary  of  State,  wrote  to  Mr. 
Green,  our  charge  d'affaires  at  Mexico :  "  You  are  enjoined, 
also,  by  the  President,  to  assure  the  Mexican  Government 
that  it  is  his  desire  to  settle  all  questions  between  the  two 
countries,  which  may  grow  out  of  this  treaty,  or  any  other 
cause,  on  the  most  liberal  and  satisfactory  terms,  including 
that  of  boundary  ;  and,  with  that  view,  the  minister  who 
has  been  recently  appointed  will  be  shortly  sent,  with  ade 
quate  powers."  And  again,  in  the  same  letter,  he  says  : 
"  The  United  States  have  left  the  boundary  of  Texas  with 
out  specification,  so  that  what  the  line  of  boundary  should 
be  might  be  an  open  question,  to  be  fairly  and  fully  dis 
cussed  and  settled,  according  to  the  rights  of  each,  —  the 
mutual  interests  and  security  of  the  two  countries." 

Mr.  Benton,  and  Mr.  Silas  Wright,  of  the  Senate,  both 
spoke  and  voted  against  the  Treaty  of  Annexation,  partly 
on  this  very  ground  of  boundary.  "  I  wash  my  hands,"  said 
the  former,  "  of  all  attempts  to  dismember  the  Mexican 
Republic,  by  seizing  her  dominions  in  New  Mexico,  Chi 
huahua,  Coahuila,  and  Tamaulipas.  The  treaty,  in  all  that 
relates  to  the  boundary  of  the  Rio  Grande,  is  an  act  of  un 
paralleled  outrage  on  Mexico.  It  is  the  seizure  of  two 
thousand  miles  of  her  territory,  without  a  word  of  explana 
tion  with  her,  and  by  virtue  of  a  treaty  with  Texas,  to 
which  she  is  no  party."  And  he  closed  his  speech  by  offer 
ing  the  following  resolution  :  "  Resolved,  That  the  incorpo 
ration  of  the  left  bank  of  the  Rio  del  Norte  into  the  Ameri 
can  Union,  by  virtue  of  a  treaty  with  Texas,  comprehend- 


ARGUMENTS    FOR   PEACE.  61 

ing,  as  the  said  incorporation  would  do,  a  portion  of  the 
I.Iexican  departments  of  New  Mexico,  Chihuahua,  Coahuila, 
•and  Tamaulipas,  would  be  an  act  of  direct  aggression  upon 
Mexico,  for  all  the  consequences  of  which  the  United  States 
would  stand  responsible." 

.Mr.  Wright,  in  a  speech  at  Watertown,  N.  Y.,  said  :  "  I  felt 
it  to  be  my  duty  to  vote  against  the  ratification  of  the  Treaty 
of  Annexation.  I  believed  that  the  treaty,  from  the  boundaries 
that  mast  be  implied  from  it,  embraced  a  country  to  which 
Texas  had  no  claims,  over  which  she  had  never  asserted 
jurisdiction,  and  which  she  had  no  right  to  cede." 

The  intention  was,  however,  as  is  evident  from  the  letter 
of  Mr.  Calhoun,  for  the  United  States,  as  Mr.  Ashley  had 
said  of  Texas,  to  have  "  a  large  margin  in  the  negotiation 
with  Mexico"  And  finally,  as  a  conclusive  and  unanswera 
ble  proof  that  there  was  a  question  open  relative  to  the 
boundaries,  we  have  the  Message  of  President  Polk,  Dec. 
1815,*  in  which  it  is  said  that  Mr.  Slidell  was  authorized,  as 
"  an  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  to 
Mexico,  clothed  with  full  powers  to  adjust  and  definitely 
settle  all  pending  differences  between  the  two  countries, 
including  those  of  boundary  between  Mexico  and  the  State 
of  Texas."  The  matter  was  so  understood  by  Mr.  Donel- 
son,  diplomatic  agent  to  Texas,  who  wrote  to  Gen.  Taylor, 
during  the  summer  of  1845  :  "  I  would  by  no  means  be  un 
derstood  as  advising  you  to  take  an  offensive  attitude  in  regard 
to  Mexico,  without  further  orders  from  the  Government  of 
the  United  States." 

"  The  occupation  of  the  country  between  the  Nueces  and 
the  Rio  Grande,  you  are  aware,  is  a  disputed  question." 

In  18'.>6,  an  agent,  Mr.  Morfitt,  was  despatched  by  Gen. 
Jackson,  the  President  of  the  United  States,  to  examine 
and  report  upon  the  condition  of  Texas,  which  had  then 

*  See.  on  this  and  other  points  below,  the  official  documents  of  Con 
gress,  and  the  Appendix  to  the  Congressional  Globe. 


62  ARGUMENTS    FOR   PEACE. 

established  an  independent  government ;  and  in  his  report, 
dated  in  August  of  that  year,  he  stated  :  that  "  the  political 
limits  of  Texas  proper,  previous  to  the  last  revolution,  were 
the  Nueces  River  on  the  west,  along  the  Red  River  on  the 
north,  the  Sabine  on  the  east,  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  on 
the  south."* 

Again ;  Mr.  Donelson,  in  a  letter  to  justify  his  refusal  to 
order  Gen.  Taylor  to  occupy  the  east  bank  of  the  Rio 
Grande,  writes,  July  11,  1845,  to  Mr.  Buchanan,  Secretary 
of  State :  "  The  Joint  Resolution  of  our  Congress  left  the 
question  (of  limits  between  Texas  and  Mexico)  an  open 
one." 

"  I  have  been  far  from  admitting  that  the  claim  of  Texas 
to  the  Rio  Grande  ought  not  to  be  maintained.  This  was 
not  the  question.  It  was,  whether,  under  the  circumstances, 
we  should  take  a  position  to  make  war  for  this  claim,  in  the 
face  of  an  acknowledgment  on  the  part  of  this  government, 
(Texas,)  it  could  be  settled  by  negotiation.  I  at  once 
decided  that  we  should  take  no  such  position,  but  should 
regard  only  as  within  the  limits  of  our  protection  that  por 
tion  of  territory  actually  possessed  by  Texas,  and  which  she 
did  not  consider  a  subject  of  negotiation."  "  What  the  exe 
cutive  of  Texas  had  determined  not  to  fight  for,  but  to  settle 
by  negotiation,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  could  as  well  be  left  to 
the  United  States  upon  the  same  condition." 

Mr.  Woodbury,  in  his  speech  in  favor  of  ratifying  the 
Treaty  of  Annexation,  says :  "  Texas,  by  a  mere  law,  could 
acquire  no  title  but  what  she  conquered  from  Mexico,  and 
actually  governed.  Hence,  though  her  law  includes  more 
than  the  ancient  Texas,  she  could  hold  and  convey  only 
that,  or  at  the  uttermost  only  what  she  exercised  clear  juris 
diction  over."| 

*  House  Journal,  No.  35,  2d  Session,  24th  Congress  :  24th  Congress, 
2d  Session,  Ho.  of  Rep.  Ex.  Doc.  No.  35,  p.  12. 
t  Appendix  to  Congressional  Globe.  June,  1844,  p.  768. 


ARGUMENTS    FOR    PEACE.  63 

Mr.  Gallatin  says :  "  The  Republic  of  Texas  did,  by  an 
act  of  Dec.  183G,  declare  the  Rio  del  Norte  to  be  its  boun 
dary.  It  will  not  be  seriously  contended  that  a  nation  has  a 
right,  by  a  law  of  its  own,  to  determine  what  is  or  shall  be 
the  boundary  between  it  and  another  country.  The  act  was 
nothing  more  than  the  expression  of  the  wishes  or  preten 
sions  of  the  government.  As  regards  right,  the  act  of  Texas 
is  a  perfect  nullity."* 

Up  to  the  last  moment  before  the  war  broke  out,  Gen. 
Taylor  acknowledged  that  the  question  of  boundaries  was 
open  ;  for,  in  his  reply  to  Gen.  Ampudia,  \vho  commanded 
him  to  retire  beyond  the  Nueces,  he  said,  April  12,  1846 :  f 
"  I  have  been  ordered  to  occupy  the  country  up  to  the  left 
bank  of  the  Rio  Grande,  until  the  boundary  shall  be  definitively 
settled:' 

A  work,  entitled  The  Republic  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  embracing  a  review  of  the  war  and  defending  it, 
says,  p.  112:  "  By  the  act  of  annexation,  the  question  of 
boundary  between  Mexico  and  Texas  was  left  an  open  one, 
to  be  decided  by  negotiation  between  the  governments  of 
Mexico  and  the  United  States." 

The  Message  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  in 
relation  to  the  territories  of  New  Mexico  and  California,  of 
July  24,  1848,  states:  "That  the  province  of  New  Mexico, 
according  to  its  ancient  boundaries,  as  claimed  by  Mexico, 
lies  on  both  sides  of  the  Rio  Grande.  That  part  of  it  on 
the  east  of  that  river  was  in  dispute  when  the  war  between 
the  United  States  and  Mexico  commenced.  *  *  *  * 

"  Though  the  republic  of  Texas,  by  many  acts  of  sove 
reignty  which  she  exerted  and  exercised,  some  of  which 
were  stated  in  my  Annual  Message  of  December,  1846,  had 
established  her  clear  title  to  the  country  west  of  the  Nueces, 
and  bordering  on  that  part  of  the  Rio  Grande  which  lies  below 

*  Peace  with  Mexico,  p.  7. 

t  30th  Congress,  1st  Session,  Ex.  Doc.  No.  60,  p.  139. 


64  ARGUMENTS    FOR   PEACE. 

the  province  oi  New  Mexico,  she  had  never  conquered  or 
reduced  to  actual  possession,  and  brought  under  lier  govern 
ment  and  laws,  that  part  of  New  Mexico  lying  east  of  the  Rio 
Grande,  which  she  claimed  to  be  within  her  limits.  On  the 
breaking  out  of  the  war,  we  found  Mexico  in  possession  of 
this  disputed  territory.  As  our  army  approached  Sante  Fe. 
(the  capital  of  New  Mexico,)  it  was  found  to  be  held  by  a 
governor  under  Mexican  authority,  and  an  armed  force  col 
lected  to  resist  our  advance.  The  inhabitants  were  Mexi 
cans,  acknowledging  allegiance  to  Mexico.  The  boundary 
in  dispute  was  the  line  between  the  two  countries  engaged  in 
actual  war,  and  the  settlement  of  it,  of  necessity,  depended  on 
a  treaty  of  peace"  * 

Observe,  this  was  a  region  east  of  the  Rio  Grande.  Ob 
serve,  too,  that  as  Santa  Fe,  on  the  Upper  Rio  Grande,  was 
confessedly  not  brought  under  the  government  and  laws  of 
Texas;  so  was  neither  the  port  of  Point  Isabel,  nor  other 
towns  and  villages  on  the  Lower  Rio  Grande.  All  that  can 
be  predicated  of  one  can  be  of  the  other,  so  far  as  their 
being  "conquered  and  reduced  to  the  actual  possession"  of 
Texas  was  concerned. 

Finally,  we  quote  at  length  a  most  significant  passage  on 
the  special  subject  of  the  boundary,  and  the  general  question 
of  the  war,  from  "the  author"  of  annexation  himself,  Mr. 
Calhoun,  whose  sincerity  in  declaring  his  opinions,  whatever 
we  may  think  of  their  nature  and  bearing,  never  has  been 
called  in  question. 

He  says  : f  "It  is  true  Mexico  claimed  the  whole  of 
Texas ;  but  it  is  equally  true  that  she  recognized  the  dif 
ference,  and  showed  a  disposition  to  act  upon  it,  between  the 
country  known  as  Texas  proper  and  the  country  between  it 
and  the  Del  Norte.  It  is  also  true,  that  we  and  Texas 
recognized  the  same  difference,  and  that  both  regarded  the 

*  The  italics  are  ours. 

t  Printed  speech,  United  States  Senate,  Feb.  24,  1847,  pp.  12,  13. 


ARGUMENTS    FOR    PEACE.  65 

boundary  as  unsettled;  as  the  resolution  of  annexation, 
which  provides  that  the  boundary  between  Texas  and  Mex 
ico  shall  be  determined  by  the  United  States,  clearly  shows. 
It  is  worthy  of  remark,  in  this  connection,  that  this  provision 
in  the  Joint  Resolution  is  understood  to  have  been  inserted, 
in  consequence  of  the  ground  taken  at  the  preceding  session 
by  the  Senator  from  Missouri,  on  the  discussion  of  the 
treaty,  that  the  Nueces  was  the  western  boundary  of  Texas, 
and  that  to  extend  that  boundary  to  the  Rio  del  Norte  would 
take  in  part  of  Tamaulipas,  Coahuila,  and  New  Mexico. 
What,  then,  ought  to  have  been  the  course  of  the  executive, 
after  annexation,  under  this  resolution  ?  The  very  one 
which  they  at  first  pursued,  —  to  restrict  the  position  of  our 
troops  to  the  country  actually  occupied  by  Texas  at  the 
period  of  annexation.  All  beyond,  as  far  as  the  executive 
was  concerned,  ought  to  have  been  regarded  as  subject  to 
the  provisions  of  the  resolutions,  which  authorized  the  gov 
ernment  to  settle  the  boundary. 

*  *  *  *  * 

"  Why  negotiate,  if  it  wrere  not  an  unsettled  question? 
Why  negotiate,  if  the  Rio  del  Norte,  —  is,  as  it  was  after 
wards  assumed,  —  was  the  clear  and  unquestionable  boun 
dary  ?  And  if  not,  upon  what  authority,  after  the  attempt 
to  open  negotiation  had  failed,  could  he  determine  what  was 
the  boundary,  viewing  it  as  an  open  question  ?  Was  it  not 
his  plain  duty,  on  such  an  occurrence,  to  submit  the  question  to 
Congress,  which  was  then  in  session,  and  in  whom  the  right 
of  establishing  the  boundary  and  declaring  war  was  clearly 
invested  ?  Had  that  course  been  adopted,  I  greatly  mistake 
if  the  sense  of  this  body  would  not  have  been  decidedly 
opposed  to  taking  any  step,  which  would  have  involved  the 
two  countries  in  war.  Indeed  I  feel  a  strong  conviction, 
that  if  the  Senate  had  been  left  free  to  decide  on  the  ques 
tion,  not  one-third  of  the  body  would  have  been  found  in 
favor  of  war.  As  it  was,  a  large  majority  felt  themselves 
6* 


66  ARGUMENTS    FOR    PEACE. 

compelled,  as  they  believed,  to  vote  for  tlie  bill  recognizing 
the  existence  of  war,  in  order  to  raise  the  supplies  of  men 
and  money  necessary  to  rescue  the  army  under  Gen.  Taylor, 
on  the  Del  Norte,  from  the  dangers  to  which  it  was  ex 
posed." 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE  SAME  SUBJECT  CONTINUED. 

"  Let  us  hope,  then,  that  the  law  of  nature,  which  makes  virtnous 
conduct  produce  benefit,  and  vice  loss  to  the  agent,  in  the  long  run, 
which  has  sanctioned  the  common  principle,  that  honesty  is  the  best 
policy,  will  in  time  influence  the  proceedings  of  nations  as  well  as 
individuals  ;  that  we  shall  at  length  be  sensible,  that  war  is  an  instru 
ment  entirely  inefficient  toward  redressing  wrong ;  that  it  multiplies, 
instead  of  indemnifying  losses.'  — JEFFERSON. 

NOTWITHSTANDING  the  foregoing  irrefragable  proofs  that 
the  boundary  between  Texas  and  Mexico  was  in  dispute,  it 
has  been  asserted  that  the  Louisiana  purchase,  of  1803,  ex 
tended  to  the  Rio  Grande.  So  it  ivas  claimed,  as  it  is  cus 
tomary  to  have  "  a  large  margin  for  negotiation."  But  it 
was  a  trick  of  diplomacy.  Western  Florida  was  laid  claim 
to,  as  a  part  of  the  same  purchase,  but  the  claim  did  not 
stand.  So  Oregon  was  claimed,  to  54°  40',  but  the  treaty 
reduced  the  line  down  to  40.°  These  large  margins  of 
claims  are  the  la>t  things  a  reasonable  being  would  suppose 
that  nations  would  be  willing  to  carry  before  the  bar  of  the 
Public  Opinion  of  Christendom,  as  adequate  causes  of  war. 
If  annexation  was  but  re-annexation,  why  did  the  United 
States  sleep  so  many  years,  and  allow  an  independent  repub 
lic  of  Texas  to  swallow  up  the  claim,  and  put  in  peril  of 


ARGUMENTS    FOR    PEACE.  67 

perpetual  alienation,  or  of  foreign  domination,  the  rights 
of  the  American  Union,  from  the  Sabine  to  the  Rio 
Grande?* 

The  defence  that  is  set  up  on  the  ground  that  Texas, 
\vhen  she  became  independent,  claimed  to  the  Rio  Grande, 
and  that  Santa  Anna,  in  183G,  allowed  the  claim,  is  equally 
futile.  Why  Texas  aspired  so  far,  is  confessed  in  the  quo 
tas  ion  already  made  from  Mr.  Ashley,  in  which  he  vouches 
for  the  reason  why  that  was  done,  on  the  very  competent 
authority  of  the  President  of  the  Texan  Convention  that 
formed  the  Constitution.  The  fact  that  Santa  Anna  was  a 
Texan  prisoner  of  war,  which  is  stated  at  the  very  head  of 
the  preamble  of  the  alleged  treaty,  and  in  imminent  danger 
of  having  his  head  cut  off  t  if  he  did  not  concede  all  that 
was  required  of  him,  is  a  sufficient  answer  to  that  branch 
of  the  argument.^  A  compulsory  obligation  of  that  kind, 

*  Hon.  J.  Q.  Adams  said,  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  May 
13,  184G.  '•  I  wrote  that  despatch  as  Secretary  of  State,  and  endea 
voured  to  make  out  the  best  case  I  could  fur  my  country,  on  it  was  my 
diitt/.  But  I  utterly  deny  that  I  claimed  the  Rio  del  Norte  as  our 
boundary,  in  its  full  extent.  I  only  claimed  it  a  short  distance  up  the 
river,  and  then  diverged  to  the  northward  some  distance  from  the 
stream.1'  —  Appendix  to  the  Congressional  Globe.,  p.  907,  29th  Congress, 
1st  Session. 

t  Article  8th  of  the  "  Treaty."  "  The  President  and  Cabinet  of  the 
Republic  of  Texas,  exercising  the  high  powers  confided  to  them  by 
the  people  of  Texas,  do,  for  and  in  consideration  of  the  foregoing 
stipulation,  solemnly  fngaqe  to  refrain  from  taking  the  life  of  the  Presi 
dent,  Santa  Anna,  and  of  the  several  officers  of  his  late  army?  etc.  And 
article  1 1  th  threatens,  in  case  of  refusal  to  enter  into  such  an  agree 
ment,  such  treatment  as  Texas  might  deem  proper  in  view  of  Mexican 
cruelties  ! 

t  Gen.  Lnmar,  Secretary  of  war  of  Texas,  says,  in  a  letter  to  the 
President.  Burner,  May  12.  183G.  "  What  good  can  they  hope  to  result 
from  an  extorted  treaty  ?  General  Santa  Anna  is  our  prisoner  of  war. 
#  *  *  What  he  assents  to  whilst  a  prisoner,  he  may  reject 
when  a  freeman." 


68  ARGUMENTS    FOR   PEACE. 

loses  its  binding  force  from  the  very  nature  of  the  circum 
stances  which  give  it  birth.  Besides,  he  could  not  constitu 
tionally  act  for  the  whole  Mexican  Government,  although 
he  was  President ;  and  one  of  the  first  acts  the  govern 
ment  did  when  he  returned  home,  was  to  disown  the  so- 
called  "  treaty"  of  San  Jacinto. 

It  is  true  that  Texas  had  exercised  some  acts  of  "  sove 
reignty  and  jurisdiction  "west  of  the  Xueces.  Corpus  Christ! 
was  on  that  side  of  the  river.  But  power  Avas  one  thing,  and 
right  was  another.  She  might  and  did  exercise  such  power 
west  of  the  Nueces  ;  but  that  was  a  very  different  jurisdiction 
from  going  to  the  Rio  Grande,  150  miles,  in  the  use  of  her 
prerogatives.  She  had  an  imperfect  revolutionary  title  to 
certain  places  and  parts,*  as  just  stated  ;  but  the  documents 
already  quoted  make  it  as  plain  as  noon-day  that  both 
Texas  and  the  United  States,  before  and  after  annexation, 
regarded  the  Rio  Grande  only  as  a  negotiable,  not  as  an 
established  line.  The  Texas  of  annexation  was  not  a  de 
finite,  but  an  indefinite  territory.  Every  speech,  every 
resolution,  every  letter,  every  message  declared  it  without 
a  dissenting  voice  before  the  war  began.  To  go  to  war 
with  Mexico  for  debatable  land,  was  what  Texas  did  not 
expect  or  require,  as  Mr.  Donelson  stated  ;  for  the  ques 
tion  was  not  one  to  be  settled  by  war,  for  war  settles  no 
thing,  but  unsettles  everything ;  but  it  was  a  legitimate  sub 
ject  for  diplomacy,  and  Mexico  consented  to  meet  the  United 
States  in  the  person  of  a  commissioner  appointed  for  that 
purpose,  and  for  none  other. 

*  The  Texas  county  of  San  Patrick)  was  west  of  the  river  Nueces, 
nnd  lay  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  Corpus  Christi.  Tho 
official  language  of  Mr.  Donelson  was,  ''  Corpus  Christi  ^  *  *  is 
the  most  western  point  now  occupied  by  Texas." 

"  The  occupation  of  the  country  between  the  Xueces  and  the  Rio 
Grande,  you  are  aware,  is  a  disputed  question.  Texas  holds  Corpus 
Christi ;  Mexico,  Santiago,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Grande." 


ARGUMENTS    FOR   PEACE.  69 

The  fact  that  certain  gazeteers,  geographies,  and  atlases, 
from  1820  to  the  present  time,  stated  the  Rio  Grande  as  the 
boundary  of  Texas,  are  all  of  suspicious  authority,  for  they 
are  chiefly  American  works ;  and  they  no  more  prove  that 
such  was  the  real  boundary  of  that  province,  than  Mitchell's 
outline  map,  extending  the  northern  line  of  Oregon  to  54°  40', 
proves  that  that  was  the  true  limit  of  the  United  States  in 
that  direction.  Claims  and  rights  are  different  terms.  The 
blue  and  red  of  geographical  lines  are  often  the  negotiable, 
rather  than  the  adjusted  limits.  Let  them  pass  for  what 
they  are  worth;  but  they  cannot  shake  one  documentary 
fact,  one  diplomatic  concession.  Another  conclusive  proof 
that  the  left  bank  of  the  Rio  Grande  was  not  "  American 
soil,"  in  any  other  sense  than  that  it  was  North  American 
soil,  is  furnished  by  the  facts  that  Mexican  custom-houses 
were  recognized  at  Brazos  Santiago,  or  Point  Isabel,  and  at 
Santa  Fe,  by  the  United  States ;  and  that  duties  were  paid 
by  its  citizens  at  those  places  after  the  annexation  of  Texas. 
An  official  order  was  issued  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Trea 
sury  regulating  exportation  to,  and  importation  from  Santa 
Fe,  as  a  Mexican  town  within  the  period,  when,  according 
to  other  statements  of  high  authority,  it  must  have  consti 
tuted  an  integral  portion  of  Texas,  and,  therefore,  of  the 
United  States,  after  annexation.* 

*  An  net  of  Congress  was  passed,  May  3,  1845,  "allowing  a  draw 
back  upon  foreign  merchandize  exported  in  the  original  packages  to 
Chihuahua  and  Santa  Fd,  in  Mexico,"  etc.  And  Mr.  Walker,  Secre 
tary  of  the  Treasury,  says,  in  his  annual  report,  December,  1845,  that 
it  had  "gone  to  some  extent  into  effect." — See  the  Official  Docu 
ments. 

The  Austin  Democrat,  of  1848,  in  arguing  the  claims  of  Texas  to 
Santa  Fe,  puts  the  case  with  great  strength :  "  If  Santa  Fe  is  a  pro 
vince  taken  by  force  of  arms  from  Mexico,  (and,  therefore,  belonging 
to  the  United  States  as  a  territory,  and  not  to  the  State^of  Texas),  so 
was  the  country  between  the  Nueces  and  tho  Bio  Grande ;  and  the 
very  moment  Gen.  Taylor  *et  foot  on  the  western  bunk  of  the  former 


70  ARGUMENTS    FOR   PEACE. 

Tliis  point  was  so  indisputable,  that  it  was  freely  admit 
ted  before  the  war,  though,  after  the  war  broke  out,  it 
seemed  to  be,  in  spirit  at  least,  denied.  Thus  the  Secretary 
of  War,  July  8,  1845,  in  a  letter  to  Gen.  Taylor,  wrote  as 
follows:  —  "This  Department  is  informed  that  Mexico  has 
some  military  establishments  on  the  east  side  of  the  Rio 
Grande,  which  are,  and  for  some  time  have  been,  in  the 
actual  occupancy  of  her  troops.  In  carrying  out  the  in 
structions  heretofore  received,  you  will  be  careful  to  avoid 
any  acts  of  aggression,  unless  an  actual  state  of  war  should 
exist.  The  Mexican  forces  at  the  parts  in  their  possession, 
and  which  have  been  so,  will  not  be  disturbed  as  long  as  the 
relations  of  peace,  between  the  United  States  and  Mexico 
continue."  * 

On  July  30,  1845,  the  Secretary  again  wrote  to  the 
American  General  as  follows:  —  "You  are  expected  to  oc 
cupy,  protect,  and  defend  the  territory  bf  Texas,  to  the  ex 
tent  that  it  has  been  occupied  by  the  people  of  Texas.  The 
Rio  Grande  is  clair»ed  to  be  the  boundary  between  the  two 
countries,  and  up  to  this  boundary  you  are  to  extend  your 
protection,  only  excepting  any  posts  on  the  eastern  side 
thereof  which  are  in  the  actual  occupancy  of  Mexican 
forces,  or  Mexican  settlements,  over  which  the  Republic  of 
Texas  did  not  exercise  jurisdiction  at  the  period  of  annex 
ation,  or  shortly  before  that  event.  It  is  expected,  in  select- 
stream,  lie  committed  an  aggression  upon  a  foreign  soil,  and  hostilely 
invaded  a  country  with  which  his  country  was  at  peace.  If  Laredo 
was  ours,  so  was  Santa  Fe  :  if  Santa  Fe  was  not,  neither  was  Laredo." 

We  give  a  list  of  the  following  towns  and  hamlets  then  belonging  to 
Mexico  on  the  east  side  of  the  Rio  Grande,  taken  from  Mr.  Davis's 
speech  in  the  House  of  Representative.?,  Dec.  22,  1846,  and  from  Lieut, 
Emory's  Map:  —  Embuda,  Canada,  Nambc,  Poji'.aque,  Santa  F£, 
Agua  Fria,  San  Jnan,  Zandia,  Alameda,  Albuquerque,  Valencia, 
Tome,  Las  Nutrias,  Parida,  Valverdc,  Frenido,  Larcilo,  and  many 
Others. 

*  80th  CctogiWa,  I  st  l&B&to,  Ex.  LVd.  No  CO",  jJ.  82. 


ARGUMENTS    FOR   PEACE.  71 

ing  the  establishment  for  your  troops,  you  will  approach  as 
near  the  boundary  line,  the  Rio  Grande,  as  prudence  will 
dictate.  With  this  view  the  President  desires  that  your 
position,  for  a  part  of  your  forces  at  least,  should  be  west  of 
the  river  Nueces."* 

And  on  Nov.  10,  1845,  the  American  Executive  instruct 
ed  Mr.  Slidell,  envoy  to  Mexico,  to  offer  a  relinquishment 
of  the  claims  of  the  United  States  against  that  nation,  and 
$5,000,000,  provided  she  would  allow  the  Rio  Grande  to  be 
established  as  the  western  boundary  of  Texas,  f 

It  were  easy  to  quote  from  Mexican  authorities  numerous 
declarations  to  the  effect  that  the  occupation  of  the  left  bank 
of  the  Rio  Grande  was  an  act  of  invasion,  and,  therefore, 
of  war,  on  the  part  of  the  American  troops.  But  it  will  be 
more  to  our  purpose  to  show,  at  some  length,  that  such  was 
unconsciously,  and  even  against  stout  disclaimers,  the  feeling 
and  natural  expression  of  the  Americans,  as  well  as  of  the 
Mexicans,  and  even  of  the  prime  agents  and  actors  in  the 
annexation  of  Texas,  and  the  Avar  with  Mexico.  "  Nature 
cannot  be  driven  out  with  a  pitchfork."  What  men  really 
feel,  they  will  unconsciously,  and  unfavorably  to  their  own 
cause,  express,  if  not  directly,  yet  at  least  incidentally. 

We  pass  by  in  this  connection  the  declaration  of  Mr.  Ben- 
ton  in  the  Senate,  that  to  occupy  the  east  bank  of  the  Rio 
Grande,  "  would  be  an  act  of  direct  aggression  on  Mexico," 
and  quote  that  of  Mr.  Ingersoll  in  the  House  of  Represen 
tatives,  I  that  "  the  stupendous  deserts  between  the  Nueces 
and  the  Bravo  (the  Rio  Grande  or  del  Norte)  rivers,  are 
the  natural  boundaries  between  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  the 
Mauritanian  races.  There  ends  the  valley  of  the  west. 

*  30th  Congress,  1st  Session,  Ex.  Doc.  No.  GO,  pp.  82,  83. 

t  Ibid.  -o.  52,  p.  78.  $  25,000,000  were  to  be  offered  for  California, 
and  $20.000,000  for  that  province,  provided  the  lino  of  boundary 
should  not  include  Monterey  on  the  Pacific,  p.  79. 

I  23th  Congress,  Ut  SeVston,  Appendix  to  Cong.  Gfotfe. 


72  ARGUMENTS    FOR   PEACE. 

There  Mexico  begins.  Thence,  beyond  the  Bravo,  begin 
the  Moorish  people  and  their  Indian  associates,  to  whom 
Mexico  properly  belongs,  who  should  not  cross  that  desert 
if  they  could,  as  on  our  side  we  ought  to  stop  there ;  because 
interminable  conflicts  must  ensue  from  either  our  going 
south,  or  their  coming  north  of  that  gigantic  boundary. 
While  peace  is  cherished,  that  boundary  will  be  sacred. 
Not  till  the  spirit  of  conquest  rages,  will  the  people  on 
either  side  molest  or  mix  with  each  other ;  and  whenever 
they  do,  one  or  the  other  race  must  be  conquered  or  extin 
guished." 

Mr.  Calhoun,  too,  in  a  letter  dated  Aug.  12,  1844,  to  Mr. 
King,  the  American  minister  to  France,  says,  "  Nature  her 
self  has  clearly  marked  the  boundary  between  her  (Mexico) 
and  Texas,  by  natural  limits  too  strong  to  be  mistaken."  * 

We  come  then,  first,  to  an  incidental  and  unconscious  testi 
mony  of  the  commander  of  the  American  troops  himself. 
When  he  met  on  the  river  Colorado  on  his  march,  the 
Mexican  officer,  who  forbade  his  crossing  that  river,  and 
declared  that  the  act  would  be  regarded  as  an  unwarranted 
aggression  on  Mexico,  how  did  Gen.  Taylor  conduct  the 
matter  ?  Did  he  act  and  speak  as  if  the  Mexican  troops, 
by  advancing  some  thirty  miles  east  of  the  Bio  Grande,  had 
violated  the  territory  of  the  United  States  ?  Did  he  charge 
them  with  invasion,  and  order  them  to  retire  into  their  own 
country  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Rio  Grande  ?  Not  at  all. 
He  manifests  no  zeal  to  repel  invasion.  He  kindles  with  no 
indignation  that  they  should  threaten  to  shed  "  American 
blood  on  American  soil."  His  whole  mien  and  behavior 
wear  the  most  indubitable  and  natural  semblance  to  that 
of  an  invader.  He  does  not  order  off  the  opposing  troops, 
as  if  they  had  no  right  there,  but  he  manifests  a  deter- 

*  28th  Congress,  2nd  Session.  Appendix  to  Congressional  Globe, 
p.  5. 


ARGUMENTS    FOR    PEACE.  73 

mined  spirit  to  go  whither  he  was  ordered,  right  or  wrong, 
and  no  matter  through  what  opposition.  He  had  none  of 
the  passion  with  which  he  would  have  met  a  British  force 
advancing  in  hostile  array  into  New  York  or  Illinois.  His 
whole  bearing  says  in  words  that  could  not  lie,  "  My  march 
is  an  aggression  on  Mexico,  or  at  least  an  advance  upon  dis 
puted  territory.  If  the  Mexicans  are  invaders,  so  much 
more  am  I.  But  a  soldier  must  obey  orders."  If  these 
things  were  not  so,  why  did  not  the  brave  commander  fire 
on  these  presumptuous  aggressors,  who  had  penetrated  so 
far  into  an  American  State  under  the  protection  of  the 
Union  ?  Once  at  least  Gen.  Taylor  so  far  forgot  himself  as 
to  write  thus,  "It  was  my  earnest  desire  to  execute  my 
instructions  in  a  pacific  manner,  to  observe  the  utmost  re 
gard  for  the  personal  rights  of  all  citizens  residing  on  the  left 
hank  of  the  river,  and  to  take  care  that  the  religion  and 
customs  of  the  people  should  suffer  no  ^  violation."*  Truly 
a  very  worthy  spirit.  But  why  this  exceeding  care,  if  these 
were  citizens,  not  of  Mexico,  but  of  the  United  States,  as 
the  pretended  boundary  claim  made  them  ? 

A  similar  undesigned,  and  therefore  altogether  more  pow 
erful,  evidence  that  Gen.  Taylor  had  advanced  upon  Mexican, 
or  at  least  disputed,  soil,  is  afforded  by  his  officers  and  men, 
writing  home  to  their  friends,  or  by  letter- writers,  who  were 
in  favor  of  the  Mexican  war,  and  who  did  not  see  the  bearing 
of  their  own  statements.  We  quote  high  Executive  author 
ity  to  the  same  effect. 

In  his  annual  message  of  Dec.,  1 840,  the  President  says, 
'•by  rapid  movements  the  province  of  New  Mexico,  with 
Santa  Fe,  its  capital,  has  been  captured  without  bloodshed," 

Again,  he  says  in  the  same  message,  "  in  le^s  than  seven 
months  after  Mexico  commenced  hostilities,  at  a  time  select 
ed  by  herself,  we  have  taken  possession  of  many  of  her 

*  30th  Congress,  1st  Session,  House  of  Representatives,  Ex.  Doc. 
>"c.  60,  p.  U5, 


74  ARGUMENTS    FOR   PEACE, 

principal  posts,  driven  back  and  pursued  her  invading  army, 
and  acquired  militarj  possession  of  the  Mexican  provinces  of 
New  Mexico,  New  Leon,  Coahuila,  Tamaulipas,"  *  etc.  But 
all  these  provinces  extended  east  of  the  Rio  Grande,  except 
New  Leon. 

T.  B.  Thorpe,  author  of  "  Our  Army  on  the  Rio  Grande," 
and  other  works,  in  describing  the  approach  of  Gen.  Tay 
lor's  army  to  that  river,  says,  "  Large  droves  of  splendid 
horned  cattle  were  now  frequently  seen ;  and  occasionally  a 
small  cotton  field,  hedged  in  by  thorn  bushes,  strengthened 
by  trunks  of  trees  set  in  the  ground,  gave  welcome  evidence 
of  a  settled  country.  Scattered  Mexican  huts  next  ap 
peared."  Could  this  have  been  a  part  of  Texas  proper  ? 

The  author  of  "  the  Life  of  General  Zachary  Taylor,  and 
a  History  of  the  War  in  Mexico,"  published  in  the  "  Brother 
Jonathan,  Battle  Sheet,  1847,"  an  advocate  of  the  war,  uses 
the  following  language :  "  The  administration  at  Washington, 
on  the  13th  of  January,  1846,  ordered  Gen.  Taylor  to  move 
forward,  and  occupy  the  east  bank  of  the  Rio  Grande,  oppo 
site  Matamoras,  but  not  disturb  any  of  the  Mexican  settle 
ments,  or  any  military  posts  that  might  be  on  this  side  of  the 
Rio  Grande,  and  to  purchase  every  thing  needed  for  the  army 
at  the  highest  price." 

Again,  "  on  setting  out  on  this  march,  he  (Gen.  Taylor) 
embodied  the  above  instructions  in  one  of  his  general  orders, 
which  he  caused  to  be  circulated  among  the  Mexicans  on  the 
east  side  of  the  Rio  Grande." 

Again,  "  on  the  24th,  Gen.  Taylor,  leaving  the  main  com 
mand  with  Gen.  Worth,  and  taking  with  him  Col.  Twiggs, 
and  his  dragoons,  approached  Frontone,  a  small  Mexican 
village  at  Point  Isabel,  in  the  department  of  Tamaulipas, 

*  The  Legislature  of  Tamaulipas  lias  demanded  two  millions  of  dol 
lars  of  the  Federal  Government,  as  indemnity  for  the  territory  North 
of  tho  Rio  Grande,  ceded  to  the  United  States  by  the  treaty  of  Gaud- 
1848. 


ARGUMENTS    FOR    PEACE.  75 

where  Gen.  Garcia  was  stationed  with  two  hundred  and  fifty 
men." 

And  once  more  ;  "  but  three  or  four  inoffensive  Mexicans 
were  found  in  the  place  (Frontone)."  * 

We  ask  how  could  all  these  things  have  been,  if  this  were 
American,  Texan,  or  United  States  soil  ? 

Capt.  TV.  S.  Henry,  of  the  U.  S.  Army,  wrote  a  work,  en 
titled  "  Campaign  Sketches  of  the  War  with  Mexico,"  in 
which  the  following  passages,  unconscious  witnesses  of  the 
truth,  are  found : 

"  Friday,  August  1,  1845.  After  enjoying  the  delightful 
view  from  the  bluff,  a  party  of  us  strolled  over  the  beautiful 
plain,  on  the  borders  of  which  many  Mexican  families  reside." 
Observe  that  this  was  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Corpus 
Christi. 

"  March  19,  1846.  Passed  many  pens  in  which  the 
Mexicans  confine  their  droves  of  cattle  and  horses." 

"  March  23d.  "  This  part  of  the  country  is  really  beauti 
ful,  and  I  am  not  surprised  that  the  Mexicans  are  loath  to 
part  with  it." 

"March  28th.  As  we  approached  the  bank  we  passed 
through  a  long  line  of  Mexican  huts." 

"  Two  hours  after  our  arrival  a  flag-staff  was  erected,  un 
der  the  superintendence  of  Colonel  Belknap,  and  soon  the 

*  A  law  was  p*assed  by  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  after  the 
annexation  of  Texas,  Dec.  29,  1845,  "That  the  State  of  Texas  shall 
be  one  collection  district,  and  the  city  of  Galveston  the  only  port  of 
entry,  to  which  shall  be  annexed  Sabine,  Velasco,  Matagorda,  Cavello, 
La  Vaca,  and  Corpus  Christi,  as  ports  of  delivery  only,"  No  port 
routes  were  established  beyond  the  valley  of  the  Nueces  until  after  the 
commencement  of  the  war. 

By  an  additional  act  of  Congress,  passed  March  3, 1847,  Saluzia  was 
made  the  only  port  of  entry,  and  Matagorda,  Aranzas,  Capano,  and 
Corpus  Christi,  the  only  ports  of  delivery  in  that  collection  district  of 
Texas. 

Why  were  Brazos,  Santiago,  and  I*oint  Isabel  left  out,  if  they  be 
longed  at  that  time  to  Texas  1 


76  ARGUMENTS    FOE   PEACE. 

flag  of  our  country,  a  virgin  one,  was  seen  floating  upon  the 
banks  of  the  Rio  Grande,  proclaiming  in  a  silent  but  impres 
sive  manner  that  the  "*  area  of  freedom '  was  again  extended. 
As  it  was  hoisted,  the  band  of  the  8th  Infantry  played  the 
'  Star-spangled  Banner,'  and  the  field  music  '  Yankee  Doo 
dle.'  There  was  not  ceremony  enough  in  raising  it.  The 
troops  should  have  been  paraded  under  arms,  the  banner  of 
our  country  should  have  been  hoisted  with  patriotic  strains 
of  music,  and  a  national  salute  should  have  proclaimed,  in 
tones  of  thunder,  that  '  Liberty  and  Union,  now  and  forever, 
one  and  inseparable,'  had  advanced  to  the  banks  of  the  Rio 
Grande."  Then  it  is  certain  that  they  had  not  reached  that 
river  before  Gen.  Taylor  pitched  his  camp  there,  by  this 
writer's  own  testimony.* 

The  same  author  says,  under  date  of  March  30th,  "  our 
situation  is  truly  extraordinary  :  right  in  the  enemy's  country 
(to  all  appearance,)  actually  occupying  their  corn  and  cotton 
fields,  the  people  of  the  soil  leaving  their  homes,f  and  we,  with 
a  small  handful  of  men,  marching  with  colors  flying  and 
drums  beating,  right  under  the  very  guns  of  one  of  their 
principal  cities,  displaying  the  star-spangled  banner,  as  if  in 
defiance  under  their  very  nose  ;  and  they,  with  an  army  twice 
our  size  at  least,  sit  quietly  down  and  make  no  resistance,  not 
the  first  effort  to  drive  us  off." 

In  a  "  Life  of  Major-General  Zachary  Taylor,  with  an 
account  of  his  brilliant  achievements  on  the  Rio  Grande, ' 
etc.,  etc.,  by  C.  Frank  Powell,  is  the  following  passage  ;  j  "we 

*  The  Italics  are  ours. 

t  "  The  population  fled  at  the  approach  of  your  army.  I  wish  to 
know  if  it  has  come  to  this,  that  when  an  American  army  goes  to  pro 
tect  American  citizens  on  American  territory,  they  flee  from  it  as  from 
the  most  barbarous  enemy  ?  Yet  such  is  the  assumption  of  those  who 
pretend  that  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Eio  Grande,  where  your  arms  took 
possession,  there  were  Texas  population,  Texas  power,  Texas  laws, 
and  American  United  States  power  and  law."  —  Corunn's  Speech  in  the 
Senate,  Feb.  11,  1847.  J  p.  13. 


ARGUMENTS    FOR    PEACE.  77 

shall  not  make  it  our  province  to  question  the  policy  of  taking 
forcible  possession  of  a  territory  known  to  be  held  in  dispute 
by  two  free  and  independent  republics  ;  but  nothing  is  clear 
er  than  that  the  commander  of  the  American  forces  but  com 
plied  with  implicit  instructions  of  the  Department,  which  were 
his  guaranty  and  justification." 

"We  cannot  say,  that  neutrality  would  have  been  pre 
served  had  possession  not  been  taken;  and  it  would  seem 
that  the  acquisition  of  the  republic,  —  but  in  equal  part 
interested  in  the  dispute,  —  by  a  third  power,  did  not  change 
the  position  of  affairs,  or  authorize  such  power  to  invest  the 
territory.  Be  this  as  it  may,  however,  on  the  28th  of  March, 
1846,  the  United  States'  army  took  up  its  quarters  opposite 
Matamoras,  and  planted  the  United  States'  flag  in  the  ancient 
department  of  Tamaulipas" 

Gen.  Taylor  wrote  to  the  Adjutant  General,*  April  G, 
1846:  "On  our  side,  a  battery  for  four  18  pounders  will  be 
completed,  and  the  guns  placed  in  battery  to-day.  These 
guns  bear  directly  upon  the  public  square  of  Matamoras, 
and  within  good  range  for  demolishing  the  town.  Their 
object  cannot  be  mistaken  by  the  enemy." 

The  force  of  these  quotations  from  active  agents  or  advo 
cates  of  the  war,  is  to  prove  that  acts  of  invasion  and  hos 
tility,  if  committed  by  either  party  up  to  the  date  of  these 
extracts,  were  chargeable  on  the  American  authorities. 
They  had  pushed  their  troops  into  a  debatable  region. 
They  had  penetrated  among  Mexican  villages  and  fields, 
and  planted  their  cannon  in  hostile  array,  commanding  a 
Mexican  city.  If  these  were  not  acts  of  war,  (casus  belli,) 
they  were  acts  provocative  of  war ;  and,  if  not  designed, 
yet,  assuredly,  they  were  perfectly  adapted,  to  plunge  the 
two  countries  into  a  sanguinary  conflict.  Had  pacific  coun 
sels  prevailed  in  both  governments,  we  can  now  see  how 

*  30th  Congress,  1st  Session.  House  of  Representatives,  Ex.  Doc. 
No.  60,  p.  133. 

7* 


78  ARGUMENTS    FOR    PEACE. 

easily  and  honorably  those  occasions  and  steps  might  have 
been  shunned,  which  resulted  at  last  in  such  terrific  evils, 
both  to  the  victor  and  the  victim.  Far  be  it  from  us  to 
exempt  either  Mexico  or  the  United  States  from  deep  guilt, 
in  bringing  on  the  contest;  but  which  government  was  chiefly 
instrumental  in  springing  the  mine  at  last,  has  been  made 
sufficiently  clear  by  the  preceding  remarks. 

In  this  connection  it  will  be  proper,  as  a  part  of  the  his 
tory  of  the  war,  to  state,  that  it  had  actually  begun,  and  two 
principal  battles,  those  of  Palo  Alto  and  Resaca  de  la  Palma, 
had  been  fought,  before  the  Congress  of  the  United  States, 
the  war-making  power,  was  apprized  of  what  was  going  for 
ward,  and  the  steps  which  had  been  taken  to  bring  matters 
to  a  crisis ;  or  had  been  favored  with  an  opportunity  to  pro 
nounce  on  the  merits  or  causes  of  a  war  with  Mexico. 
Their  vote,  therefore,  was  but  a  foregone  conclusion. 
They  but  registered  the  decision  that  had  gone  forth  from 
another  branch  of  the  government.  While,  accordingly, 
the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  29th  Congress,  on  May 
13,  1846,  voted,  by  a  majority  of  173  to  14,  that,  "by  the 
act  of  the  republic  of  JVlexico,  a  state  of  war  exists  between 
that  government  and  the  United  States;"  on  Jan.  3,  1848, 
the  newly  chosen  House  of  Representatives  of  the  30th 
Congress  voted,  in  a  Joint  Resolution  of  thanks  to  Gen. 
Taylor,  his  officers,  and  men,  by  a  majority  of  85  to  81,  that 
the  war  was  "  unnecessarily  and  unconstitutionally  begun  by 
the  President  of  the  United  States  ; "  and  this  vote  was  sub 
sequently  sustained  against  reconsideration,  on  Feb.  14th,  by 
a  majority  of  115  to  94. 

Having  thus  far  discussed  the  beginning  of  the  wrar,  as  an 
argument  for  peace,  as  a  precedent,  illustrating  the  saying 
of  the  Wise  Man,  that  it  is  better  to  "  leave  off  contention 
before  it  be  meddled  with  ;  "  we  now  proceed  to  make  a  few 
remarks  on  the  termination  of  the  contest,  as  also  bearing 
witness  in  behalf  of  the  cause  of  peace. 


ARGUMENTS    FOR   PEACE.  79 

Various  proposals  were  made  to  the  Mexican  Govern 
ment,  during  the  prosecution  of  the  war,  to  enter  into  nego 
tiations  of  peace.  Offers  were  addressed,  at  different  periods, 
by  the  superior  commanders,  acting  under  directions  from 
home,  to  treat  of  matters,  in  dispute  between  the  two  coun 
tries  ;  but  Mexico,  feeling  herself  deeply  wronged  and 
aggrieved,  and  clinging  to  the  principle  of  the  integrity  of 
the  national  domains,  rejected  with  scorn  all  pacific  counsels. 

It  was  with  this  view,  that  an  armistice  of  eight  weeks 
formed  one  of  the  articles  of  the  capitulation  of  Monterey. 
And,  after  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista,  Gen.  Taylor  sent  an 
officer  to  Gen.  Santa  Anna,  "  to  express  to  him  the  desire 
still  cherished  by  the  American  Government,  for  the  re- 
establishment  of  peace."  "  Say  to  Gen.  Taylor,"  was  the 
reply,  "  that  we  sustain  the  most  sacred  of  causes,  —  the 
defence  of  our  territory,  and  the  preservation  of  our  nation 
ality  and  rights." 

AftPr  the   battle  of  Ceno  Grurdo,  Gen.  Scott   addressed   a 

letter  to  the  Mexican  people,  to  persuade  them  to  entertain 
propositions  of  peace,  and  to  understand  their  true  interests. 
But  the  effort  was  fruitless. 

Finally,  the  sword,  drunk  as  it  was  with  human  blood, 
proving  an  ineffectual  instrument  of  pacification,  a  more 
hopeful  plan  suggested  itself  to  the  American  Government. 
N.  P.  Trist^,  Esq.,  as  before  stated,  was  appointed,  on  the 
35th  of  April,  1847,  an  agent,  by  the  President,  unconfirmed 
and  unauthorized  by  the  Senate,  the  confirming  and  treaty- 
making  power ;  and  his  commission  stated  that  he  was  in 
vested,  "  in  the  fullest  and  most  complete  manner,  with 
ample  power  and  authority,  in  the  name  of  the  United 
States,  to  meet  and  confer  with  any  person  or  persons,  who 
shall  have  similar  authority  from  the  republic  of  Mexico, 
and  between  them  to  negotiate  and  conclude  an  arrangement 
of  the  differences  which  exist  between  the  two  countries  — 
a  treaty  of  peace,  amity,  and  lasting  boundaries.  Mr.  Trist 


80  ARGUMENTS    FOR    PEACE. 

carried  with  him  to  Mexico,  from  the  department  of  State, 
"a  project  of  a  treaty."  Its  principal  features  were,  the 
cession  to  the  United  States  of  the  disputed  territory  be 
tween  the  Nueces  and  the  Rio  Grande,  with  the  adoption  of 
the  latter  river  as  the  boundary  line  ;  the  cession  of  New 
Mexico,  and  both  Upper  and  Lower  California ;  and  the 
free  right  of  way  forever  across  the  isthmus  of  Tehuantepec. 
Three  millions  of  dollars  had  been  placed,  by  Congress,  at 
the  disposal  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  by  which 
the  provisions  of  a  treaty  of  peace  might  be  concluded,  and 
its  objects  fulfilled.  Mr.  Trist  accompanied  Gen.  Scott  and 
his  army  to  the  Valley  of  Mexico  ;  and,  after  the  battles  of 
Contreras  and  Churubusco,  he  met  Mexican  commissioners, 
specially  appointed  to  negotiate  a  treaty.  From  the  27th  of 
August,  1847,  to  the  7th  of  September,  the  commission  thus 
jointly  constituted  was  in  session,  at  a  small  village  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  the  capital.  Mr.  Trist  laid  his  pro 
ject  before  the  Mexican  commissioners,  who  also  proposed 
conditions  of  peace,  that  rested  essentially  on  these  points : 
the  adoption  of  the  Nueces  as  the  boundary ;  thence  west  to 
the  eastern  boundary  of  New  Mexico;  thence  north  with 
that  boundary  to  the  thirty-seventh  degree  of  latitude ; 
thence  west  with  that  parallel  to  the  Pacific ;  and  that  the 
country  between  the  Nueces  and  the  Rio  Grande  should  be 
left  as  an  uninhabited  country.  But  the  commission  could 
not  agree ;  the  failure  turning  wholly  on  the  claim  of  the 
south  part  of  New  Mexico,  which  neither  party  would  yield ; 
while  Mr.  Trist  was  willing  to  concede  Lower  California, 
and  to  refer  the  question  of  the  Nueces  territory  to  the 
cabinet  at  Washington.  On  the  7th  of  September  the  dis 
cussions  closed,  and  on  the  8th  Gen.  Scott  opened  his  cannons 
on  Molino  del  Rey. 

Mr.  Trist  was  subsequently  recalled,  by  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  and  his  authority  as  a  peace  commissioner 
declared  to  be  at  an  end.  But  he  remained  in  Mexico,  with 


ARGUMENTS    FOB   PEACE.  81 

the  army;  and,  on  the  2d  of  February,  1848,*  he  negotiated, 
with  commissioners  appointed  by  the  Mexican  Government, 
the  treaty  of  peace,  which  has  already  in  the  preceding 
chapter  been  mentioned,  as  receiving  finally  the  ratification 
of  the  lawful  powers  of  both  governments.  The  articles  of 
pacification  are  too  well  known,  to  be  repeated  at  length. 
It  is  sufficient  to  state,  that  the  troops  of  the  United  States 
were  to  withdraw  from  Mexico  ;  the  blockaded  ports  to  be 
opened  ;  the  Rio  Grande  to  be  the  boundary  line  on  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  on  the  Pacific  the  line  between  Upper 
and  Lower  California;  the  payment  of  fifteen  millions  of 
dollars  to  Mexico,  in  consideration  of  the  territory  thus 
acquired ;  and  the  exoneration  of  Mexico  from  all  claims  of 
citizens  of  the  United  States  for  spoliations,  to  the  amount 
of  several  millions  more. 

The  conclusion  of  the  war  thus  demonstrates  the  superior 
power  and  blessings  of  peace.  Both  parties  were  tired  of 
the  contest ;  the  one  of  being  defeated  and  ravaged,  the 
other  of  losing  thousands  of  lives,  and  millions  of  money. 
So  far  as  the  peace  was  a  measure  forced  by  the  sword,  it  is 
as  dishonorable  in  the  light  of  humanity  and  Christianity  to 
the  victorious,  as  it  is  humiliating  to  the  vanquished  nation. 
For  Fenelon,  noble  champion  for  his  day  of  the  humane 
spirit  in  international  intercourse,  says,  in  his  "  Directions 
for  the  Conscience  of  a  Ki"g,"  that  "a  treaty  of  peace, 
that  is  made  from  necessity,  because  one  party  is  the 
stronger,  is  like  that  which  is  made  with  a  robber,  who 
has  a  pistol  at  your  head."  And  so  far  as  the  power  of 
money  prevailed,  where  the  power  of  the  bayonet  had  failed, 
so  far  as  the  negotiation,  though  unauthorized  at  the  time, 
succeeded,  where  the  bravest  general  had  been  frustrated  in 
"  conquering  a  peace,"  the  treaty  might  as  well  have  been 
negotiated  in  February,  1846,  as  in  February,  1848. 

*  30th  Congress,  2d  Session,  House  of  Representatives,  Ex.  Doc. 
No.  50,  on  the  Treaty  of  Peace.  Also,  Senate,  Ex.  Doc,  No.  52. 


82  EXPENDITURES    OF    THE    WAR. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE    EXPENDITURES    OF   THE    WAR. 

"  I  said  one  day  in  Venice,  in  a  company  which  was  very  clamorous 
for  a  war,  I  wish  that  each  of  the  great  men  and  great  women  present 
was  ordered  by  the  emperor  to  contribute,  at  the  rate  of  four  thousand 
ducats  a  head,  to  the  charges  of  the  war ;  and  that  the  other  fine  gen 
tlemen  among  us  were  made  to  take  the  field  forthwith,  in  person."  — 
PJRIXCE  EUGENE. 

WE  devote  this  chapter  to  "  the  waste  of  treasure,"  pro 
duced  by  the  Mexican  War,  to  both  the  nations  concerned. 
There  are  men  of  reputed  wisdom  and  high  standing,  who 
scorn  the  consideration  of  the  cost  of  a  war.  They  deem  it 
a  sordid  act  to  put  money  into  one  scale,  to  weigh  against 
national  glory  in  the  other.  We  confess  that  money  is  not 
the  chief  good  of  life,  and  that  wasting  it  by  millions  is  not 
the  chief  evil  of  war.  We  confess  that  there  are  things 
which  a  nation  should  hold  infinitely  dearer  than  an  over 
flowing  exchequer,  and  for  which  it  should  pour  out  its  gold 
and  silver  with  the  bountifulness  of  the  rains  of  heaven. 
Such  are  the  maintenance  of  its  just  rights  by  Christian 
means,  the  diffusion  of  education  and  religion  among  its 
people,  and  the  contribution  of  food  and  clothing  for  the 
famished  and  naked  abroad,  as  well  as  to  build  up  every 
good  institution,  asylum,  and  public  work,  that  will  insure 
the  physical,  domestic,  and  moral  improvement  of  its  masses. 
But  we  do  not  recognize  this  war  as  among  these  objects  ; 
it  belongs  to  a  very  different  category. 

When  we  look,  too,  on  one  hand,  at  the  horrid  destitution 
and  consequent  degradation  and  wretchedness  of  extensive 


EXPENDITURES    OF   THE    WAR.  83 

strata  of  society  in  the  old  world,  and  then  witness,  on  the 
other,  the  fruitful  cause,  direct  or  indirect,  of  this  incalcula 
ble  woe,  in  the  war-debts  which  hang  like  Alps  and  Andes 
around  the  necks  of  the  European  powers,  we  would  utter  a 
cry  that  should  pierce  the  hearts  of  our  countrymen,  and 
warn  them  from  the  ambition  of  copying  into  their  unwritten 
history  so  dark  a  chapter.  Vice  and  misery  need  be  no  rid 
dle  or  wonder  in  England  or  France,  after  we  have  read  the 
history  of  their  battles.  Doubtless,  many  other  causes  be 
sides  war  have  contributed  to  dry  up  the  sources  of  public 
prosperity,  to  make  the  rich  richer,  and  the  poor  poorer,  and 
multiply  pauperism  and  crime  to  an  almost  boundless  extent. 
We,  as  citizens  of  a  republican  government,  think  we  can 
identify  these  causes  in  some  measure  with  the  old  feudal, 
monarchical,  and  ecclesiastical  institutions  that  yet  have  a  foot 
ing  beyond  the  Atlantic.  But  it  is  still  our  conviction  that 
these  causes,  bad  as  they  may  be  in  themselves,  have  derived 
tenfold  virulence  of  evil  from  the  omnipresent  and  overshad 
owing  institutions  and  customs  of  War.  For  war,  not  only 
in  a  time  of  war,  with  its  ruinous  drain,  near  or  remote,  upon 
every  branch  of  production  and  industry  in  the  state ;  but 
war,  contradictory  as  the  terms  may  be,  in  a  time  of  peace, 
has  swallowed  up  many  millions  more  than  the  civil  list. 
The  treasury  of  the  richest  country  on  the  earth,  thus  be 
comes,  like  the  sieve  of  the  Danaides,  always  filling  and 
always  empty.  And  the  fortune  of  the  state  is  repeated  in 
miniature  in  the  fortune  of  the  humblest  citizen.  For  the 
waste  of  war  is  not  half  enumerated  when  we  have  summed 
up  the  huge  public  expenditures,  which  are  as  much  beyond 
our  imagination  adequately  to  conceive,  as  the  distance  to  one 
of  the  fixed  stars,  but  we  must  gather  up  a  countless  heap  of 
items,  each  minute  in  itself,  but  constituting  a  mountain  of 
aggregate  loss,  —  the  poor  man's  garden  trampled  by  the  hoofs 
of  the  war-troop,  the  corn-fields  cut  up  for  forage,  the  little 
improvements  on  his  acre  ravaged,  the  one  "  ewe-lamb  "  ta- 


84  EXPENDITURES    OF    THE    TVAR. 

ken,  the  widow';;  cow  driven  away,  or  the  widow's  son  wrest 
ed  from  her  side  to  bleed  and  languish  in  foreign  parts. 
These,  —  and  the  catalogue  might  be  run  to  any  length, — 
constitute  "  a  waste  of  treasure  "  and  of  human  comfort  in 
their  lowlier  aspects,  which  are  never  registered  in  the  na 
tional  legers  of  the  contending  powers,  but  which  are  all  re 
corded  with  a  pea  of  iron  in  the  book  of  human  life  and  of 
God,  where  every  leaf  is  a  broken  heart.  There  need  be 
some  great  cause,  "  known  and  read  of  all  men,"  to  justify 
the  infliction  at  home  and  abroad  of  such  manifold  woes,  else 
they  accumulate  and  darken  into  a  crime,  before  which  all  or 
dinary  guilt  is  but  a  breath  of  air. 

But  the  expenses  of  this  war,  great  as  they  are,  will  not 
be  too  great  a  price  to  pay,  if  they  shall  serve  to  awaken  any 
considerable  portion  of  the  people  to  the  wrongs  and  barbar 
ities  of  this  old-world  institution.  We  may  rejoice,  in  one 
sense,  in  the  heavy  burdens  men  bring  upon  themselves  for 
their  sins.  It  is  of  a  piece  with  the  great  retributive  Provi 
dence  of  God,  as  good  as  it  is  just.  Fearful  indeed  would  it 
be,  if  we  could  carry  on  such  a  contest  with  a  powerful  na 
tion,  and  not  have  a  mete  recompense  of  reward  following 
after  it,  to  the  pecuniary,  as  well  as  other  interests  of  the 
country.  We  cannot  act  in  this  world  under  an  exhausted 
receiver,  in  which  we  are  cut  oil'  from  the  great  vital  atmos 
phere  of  humanity,  nor  disconnect  ourselves  from  the  corn- 
round  system  of  life,  in  which  mutual  action  and  reaction 
throughout  are  reigning  principles.  Thus  viewed,  the  cost 
of  our  Wars,  our  Slaveries,  our  Intemperance  and  other  vices 
and  vicious  customs,  is  a  wise  and  kind  punishment,  inflicted 
upon  us  to  remind  us  how  far  we  have  strayed  from  the  ways 
of  our  God,  and  how  hard  and  harder,  the  farther  he  walks 
-in  it,  becomes  the  way  of  the  transgressor. 

Property  is  one  of  the  trusts  of  God  to  man,  and  (hough 
it  is,  of  and  by  itself,  one  of  the  inferior  blessings  of  life,  yet 
the  spirit  in  which  the  trust  is  discharged,  and  the  uses  to 


EXPENDITURES    OF    THE    WAR.  85 

which  money  is  applied,  are  matters  of  the  first  importance. 
As  we  use  or  abuse  its  magic  power,  we  can  kill  or  make 
{ilive,  raise  or  sink,  bless  or  curse,  ourselves,  our  family,  our 
town,  our  state.  Property  is  one  of  the  momentous  trusts 
oF  government,  and  it  may  be  transformed  into  camps  or 
schools,  bullets  or  books,  destructive  armies,  or  pacific  explor 
ing  expeditions.  It  may  be  cast  into  the  scale  of  civilization 
or  barbarism.  It  may  be  employed  to  convert  the  goodly 
earth  into  a  Pandemonium,  or  to  hasten  the  Millennial  ages. 

"When,  accordingly,  the  revenues  of  a  people  are  expended 
in  war,  and  a  debt  of  fearful  magnitude  is  saddled  upon  pos 
terity,  it  is  right  to  demand  that  a  strong  and  sufficient  rea 
son  be  made  out  to  justify  such  extraordinary  measures. 
Much  as  men  may  be  enamored  of  military  glory,  and  pas 
sionately  as  they  may  resent  any  infringement  upon  their 
rights,  yet  war  is  a  ruinous  game  to  the  winner  as  well  as  the 
loser.  Every  battle  is  as  truly  the  destruction,  by  its  imme 
diate  and  its  ramified  influences  and  effects,  of  millions  of  the 
earnings  of  the  laboring  and  producing  classes,  as  if  the  balls 
were  of  silver,  and  the  wadding  Treasury  notes.  And  some 
where  and  upon  somebody  the  loss  will  fall,  and  fall  with  the 
certainty  of  gravitation.  Far  away  it  may  be ;  and  mixed 
up  and  mystified  with  endless  details  of  currency,  and  tariffs 
and  income-taxes,  it  probably  will  be ;  but  upon  the  rich 
man's  property,  upon  the  poor  man's  sinews  even  more  sure 
ly,  the  reckoning  will  come,  and  the  money,  the  mines  and 
mints  of  money  that  were  absorbed  into  mighty  fleets  and 
armies,  and  that  went  down  at  Trafalgar,  or  were  blown  into 
the  canopy  of  smoke  that  shrouded  Cerro  Gordo,  must  all  be 
paid,  cent  for  cent,  and  dollar  for  dollar.  Such  is  the  waste 
and  profligacy  of  war.  Such  is  the  tremendous  responsibili 
ty  of  tho?e  who  set  in  motion  its  destroying  agencies  of  fire 
and  sword,  famine  and  pestilence. 

The  figures  used  in  calculating  the  expenses  of  wars  in 
general,  are  so  vast  that  they  are  blunted  in  their  force  by 
8 


86  EXPENDITURES    OF    THE    WAR. 

their  very  magnitude.  For  when  we  say,  as  is  said  on  good 
authority,  that  the  American  Revolution  cost  Great  Britain 
$680,000,000,  that  the  French  Revolutionary  war  of  nine 
years  from  1793,  cost  $2,320,000,000  ;  that  the  contest  with 
Napoleon,  from  1803  to  1815,  cost  $5,795,000,000,  or  an 
average  of  $1,323,082  every  day,  or  more  than  a  million  of 
it  for  war-purposes  alone  every  day ;  that  Europe  spent 
$15,000,000,000  for  the  wars  that  raged  from  1793  to  1815  ; 
and  that  we  of  the  United  States  expended  in  a  period  of 
forty-one  years,  from  1791  to  1832,  during  which  time  we 
had  only  two  years  and  a  half  of  actual  war,  the  sum  of 
$842,250,891,  of  which  sum  only  $37,158,047  belonged  to 
the  civil  list,  the  rest  used  for  war  purposes ;  when  we  have 
read  a  few  statistics  of  this  appalling  kind,  we  seem  to  lose 
in  the  indefiniteness  of  such  inconceivable  sums  of  money  the 
vivid  impression  which  even  the  loss  visibly  of  a  single  dol 
lar  out  of  our  own  pocket  would  occasion.  And  it  is  perhaps 
somewhat  to  this  intellectual  incapacity  of  comprehending 
the  billions  of  the  war-tax,  as  well  as  to  moral  apathy,  that 
we  may  fairly  attribute  the  ease  with  which  every  government 
satisfies  the  mass  of  its  subjects  in  its  outrageous  expendi 
tures  for  forts,  and  ships,  and  armies.  And  the  marvel  is, 
after  we  have  surveyed  the  devastations  of  war  upon  man's 
prosperity,  not  that  he  starves,  rebels,  or  speculates  wildly 
about  his  condition  on  earth,  not  that  multitudes  suffer  and 
perish  in  pauperism,  famine,  ignorance,  and  sin,  but  that  so 
ciety  has  any  life  left  at  all,  that  every  vein  of  circulation  is> 
not  stagnant,  and  every  nerve  of  motion  palsied. 

Though  much  of  the  property  thus  expended  by  a  na 
tion  is  not  actually  annihilated,  but  only  passes  from  one 
hand  to  another  in  purchasing  the  articles  of  war,  yet 
when  we  have  added  to  the  qualified  public  account  the 
innumerable  private  losses  that  go  unrecorded,  the  sum  total 
would  exceed  rather  than  fall  short  of  the  above  statements. 
And  here  observe,  that  nothing  of  all  that  man  does  under 


EXPENDITURES    OF    THE    WAR.  87 

the  sun,  is  so  purely,  so  prodigally  wasteful  as  war.  It 
is  killing,  burning,  exploding,  consuming,  wasting,  cheating, 
in  all  its  processes.  It  has  no  producing  power.  If 
called,  in  company  with  other  trades  and  guilds  to  show 
the  results  of  his  labors,  the  warrior  can  only  point  to 
the  smoking  battle-field,  to  the  shattered  city,  to  the  tramp 
led  fields,  to  dead  and  dying  men  and  horses,  to  broken 
weapons  and  dismounted  batteries,  as  the  most  consummate 
material  trophies  of  his  skill.  His  implements  till  no 
soil  but  "  the  dark  and  bloody  ground, "  and  his  arm 
gathers  no  harvest  but  the  harvest  of  death.  His  mes 
sengers  are  missiles  of  destruction,  and  his  arm  rests  when 
he  has  done  his  weary  day's  work  on  a  pyramid  of  human 
skulls.  "  Thrifty,  unwearied  Nature,  ever  out  of  our  great 
waste  educing  some  little  profit  of  her  own, "  may  "  shroud- 
in  the  gore  and  carnage, "  and  "  next  year  the  Marchfeld 
will  be  green,  nay  greener  ;"  but  for  every  ear  of  wheat 
that  waves  over  the  unnatural  field,  some  tear  was  shed, 
some  heart  was  broken,  some  life  was  lost.  The  produc 
tiveness  of  war  would  furnish  a  new  chapter  for  Smith 
or  Say  on  the  wealth  of  nations  and  the  laws  of  political 
economv. 

From  the  enormous  outgoes  of  other  wars  we  readily 
draw  the  expectation,  that  our  frugal  republican  habits 
have  suddenly  launched  out  into  the  most  spendthrift  ways 
in  our  recent  contest.  The  Florida  war  of  six  years  with  a 
handful  of  naked  Seminoles  cost  $42,000,000.  The  French 
war  with  Algiers  has  for  sixteen  years  cost  $20,000,000, 
annually,  making  a  grand  total  of  $320,000,000.  The  Aff- 
ghan  war,  short  as  it  was,  cost  Great  Britain  $65,000,000. 
For  with  all  their  inventions  men  have  not  yet  disco 
vered  how  to  wage  a  cheap  war.  They  invent  labor-saving 
and  ingenious  machinery  for  every  other  work,  but  the 
horrid  work  of  battle  requires  to  be  done  by  the  practised 
hand  and  the  steady  eye  of  an  intelligent  agent.  Hence 


88  EXPENDITURES    OF   WAR. 

with  all  the  increased  means  of  destruction,  man  has  still 
in  a  great  measure  to  do  the  bloody  drudgery  himself,  and 
work  his  own  hellish  engines  ;  he  cannot  drag  the  reluctant 
steam  or  electricity  into  his  service  to  tend  his  cannon, 
or  propel  the  serried  array  of  his  lances.  General  Tailor 
is  thought  to  have  given  a  heroic  command  to  his  troops 
in  his  General  Orders  on  the  day  preceding  the  battle  of 
Palo  Alto  in  saying,  "  he  wishes  to  enjoin  upon  the  bat 
talions  of  Infantry  that  their  main  dependence  must  be  on 
the  bayonet  ;"  but  it  shows  the  manual  labor,  so  io  speak, 
of  a  battle,  and  the  impossibility,  as  in  the  arts  of  peace, 
of  shifting  off  a  large  amount  of  the  toil  upon  the  sponta 
neous  forces  of  nature.  It  requires  men  to  kill  men  by 
the  hundreds  and  thousands.  The  business  cannot  be  done 
by  machinery. 

The  time  of  reckoning  the  cost  of  the  Mexican  war  has 
not  yet  come.  The  most  that  can  be  done  now  is  to  make 
some  general  estimates  from  what  is  known  and  authenti 
cated  to  what  is  unknown,  and  to  what  never  will  be  known. 
But  from  documentary  statements  we  learn  that  this  war 
has  not  proved  an  exception  to  the  general  rule.  It  has 
consumed  millions  upon  millions  of  American,  and  what  to 
the  philanthropist  and  Christian  will  be  deeply,  if  not 
equally  deplorable,  millions  upon  millions  of  Mexican  pro 
perty.  The  capital  that  the  two  chief  young  republics 
of  the  earth  could  ill  afford  to  lose,  has  been  squan 
dered.  Heavy  debts  that  will  require  years  for  their 
disbursement  have  been  contracted.  The  energies  of  many 
thousand  men  in  both  countries  have  been  diverted  from 
industrial  and  productive  occupations.  Many  have  taken 
up  the  profession  of  arms,  and  will  not  return  again  to  the 
pursuits  of  peace,  but  will  seek  to  find,  in  some  "  Buffalo 
Hunt  on  the  Rio  Grande,"  or  some  "Fox  Hunt  in  Canada," 
the  chosen  theatre  of  their  adventures. 

The  cost  of  the  war  to  Mexico  has  probably  on  the  whole 


EXPENDITURES    OF    THE    WAR.  89 

been  as  great  as  it  has  been  to  the  United  States.*  For 
though  her  troops  did  not  leave  their  own  soil,  nor  require 
to  be  transported  thousands  of  miles  by  land  and  water, 
yet  she  had  three  or  four  times  as  many  in  the  field,  and 
the  killed  and  wounded  men,  cut  off  in  the  prime  of  life 
from  all  occupations,  were  far  more  numerous.  The  United 
States  in  most  cases  honorably  paid  the  inhabitants  where 
the  country  was  conquered  for  all  the  articles  consumed 
by  the  troops,  but  Mexico  lost  an  immense  sum  by  the 
blockade  of  every  port  in  the  Gulf  and  on  the  Pacific,  the 
diversion  of  her  maritime  revenues  into  the  coffers  of  her 
enemy,  and  the  heavy  military  contributions  that  were 
levied  upon  the  respective  provinces,  invaded  both  by  Gen 
eral  Taylor  and  General  Scott,  and  by  the  commodores  on 
the  several  naval  stations.  She  also  lost  an  incalculable 
amount  of  public  stores,  and  the  material  of  war  of  every 
description.  So  far  as  conquest  was  concerned  and  the 
fruits  of  conquest,  all  the  gain  was  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States,  and  all  the  loss  on  the  part  of  her  helpless  victim,  t 

*  Three  causes  have  been  mentioned  by  some  periodical  writer, 
why  the  United  States  have  suffered  less  pecuniary  loss  in  this  war, 
than  nations  ordinarily  do  in  such  contests  ;  1.  The  distance  of  the 
active  warfare  from  our  own  soil.  2.  The  perfect  security  and  free 
dom  of  our  commerce.  3.  The  influx  for  a  time  of  foreign  specie, 
owing-  to  the  famine  in  Europe.  —  Advocate  of  Peace,  March  and 
April,  1848,  pp.  1 76— 178. 

t  The  Quarter  Master  General  reports,  Nov.  24,  1847,  the  receipt 
of  $46,960.82  captured  in  Mexico,  or  accruing  from  customs. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Navy  reports,  Nov.  17,  1847,  the  collection 
by  officers  of  the  United  States  of  $530,810,46  in  the  four 
cities  of  Vera  Cruz,  Tampico,  Matamoras,  and  Saltillo,  as  military 
contributions  levied  upon  them. 

The  General  Orders  of  Scott,  dated  Mexico,  Dec.  31,  1847,  as 
sessed  &3,O4G,5G8.  on  the  several  States  of  Mexico,  according  to  their 
ability,  being  "  quadruple  of  the  direct  taxes  paid  by  the  several 
States  to  their  Federal  Government  in  the  year  1843  or  1844. " 
It  was  not,  however,  nearly  all  collected. 

8* 


90  EXPENDITURES    OF   THE   WAR. 

The  actual  destruction  of  private  and  public  property  must 
necessarily  have  been  immense  in  the  path  of  the  invad 
ing  armies,  and  at  the  sieges  of  Monterey,  Vera  Cruz, 
Puebla,  Atlixco,  and  Mexico,  to  say  nothing  of  the  bom 
bardment  of  other  places,  Tuspan,  Tobasco,  and  Huamantla. 
It  will  let  us  into  the  secrets  of  war-making  a  little  to  read 
such  as  the  following  items  of  intelligence  taken  at  hazard. 
Edwards,  in  his  sketch,  entitled  "  Doniphan's  Campaign,  " 
pp.  153,  154,  writes,  "  at  this  same  Ceralvo  we  arrived 
on  the  twenty-ninth.  It  is  one  of  the  few  places  which 
Taylor  did  not  destroy  along  the  road:  —  he  had  been 
compelled  to  lay  waste  most  of  the  ranches  and  small  towns, 
on  account  of  their  affording  concealment  to  parties  of 
guerillas  who  would  occasionally  rob  the  waggon  trains." 
General  Taylor  in  a  letter  to  the  "War  Department,  dated 
Monterey,  Sept.  28,  1846,  says,  "  The  command  left  by 
Colonel  Harney  at  the  Presidio  crossing,  having  been 
fired  upon  by  the  Mexicans  with  the  loss  of  one  killed 
and  two  wounded,  set  fire  to  the  public  stores  they  were  left 
to  protect,  and  retreated  to  San  Antonio."  The  bombard 
ment  of  Vera  Cruz  was  computed  to  have  destroyed 
between  one  and  two  millions  of  property.*  These  facts 
serve  to  show  the  losses  which  probably  ensued  to  a 


The  Secretary  of  War  reports,  Dec  1,  1848,  that  the  amount  of 
"  contributions,  and  avails  of  captured  property"  cannot  at  that  time 
be  fully  and  accurately  ascertained,  but  $3.  844.373,  77  were  reported 
as  received,  and  more  was  expected  from  New  Mexico  and  California. 
—  30th  Congress,  2nd  Session,  House  of  Representatives.  Ex.  Doc. 
1,  p.  80. 

An  officer,  on  board  the  United  States'  man-of-war  Independence, 
wrote  nrxlrv  dnte  of  April  15,  184;*,  Mazatian,  that  "we  have  col 
lected  or  secured  at  the  Custom  House  here  duties  to  the  amount 
of  £  I  50:000.  " 

*  It  was  computed  by  some  that  the  bombardment  of  Vera  Cruz 
destroyed  property  to  the  amount  of  $6,000,000  ;  and  Mexican  au 
thorities  asserted  an  equal  loss  at  the  capital,  but  it  was  no  doubt 
exaggerated. 


EXPENDITURES    OF    THE   WAR.  91 

greater  or  less  extent  at  every  point,  touched  or  occupied  by 
the  American  arms.  When  to  these  considerations  we  add 
the  loss  of  part  of  her  provinces  of  Tamaulipas,  Coahuila, 
Chihuahua,  and  the  whole  of  New  Mexico,  and  Upper 
California,  we  shall  stand  justified  in  the  opinion  that  not 
withstanding  what  she  has  received  in  indemnity,  viz. 
the  relinquishment  of  the  claims,  and  the  payment  of 
SI 5, 000,000,  as  a  make-peace,  the  loss  to  Mexico  has  been 
fully  equal  to  that  of  the  Dinted  States. 

We  proceed  to  state  what  that  is,  according  to  the  most 
reliable  documents  and  estimates;  premising,  however,  that 
many  years  must  pass,  before  any  one  can  say  what  the 
expenses  are  in  full ;  since  all  the  incidentals, — as  pensions, 
bounties,  and  private  claims, —  of  neither  the  Florida  war, 
nor  that  of  1812,  nor  even  that  of  the  American  Revolution, 
have  as  yet  been  ascertained  and  paid.  The  details,  too,  in 
official  documents,  are  so  difficult  to  analyze  and  understand, 
that  none  but  an  accomplished  financier  can  do  the  subject 
full  justice.  Even  Mr.  Gallatin  himself,  one  of  the  ablest 
and  most  experienced  of  living  men  in  his  day,  in  this  de 
partment  of  affairs,  in  his  Treatise  of  1848,  entitled  "  War 
Expenses,"  is  obliged,  sometimes,  to  confess  himself  at 
fault. 

War  was  declared  by  the  President  of  the  Dnited  States, 
May  13,  1846,  and  peace  was  ratified  by  the  Mexican  Con 
gress,  May  25,  1848.  The  two  nations  were,  therefore, 
embroiled  with  each  other  about  two  years.  The  fiscal  year 
of  the  Dnited  States  ends  June  30th,  and  the  two  years  of 
the  war  may  be  regarded  as  covering,  in  some  measure,  two 
fiscal  years.  The  expenses  of  the  war  extended,  however, 
materially  into  the  fiscal  year  beginning  June  30,  1848, 
and  ending  June  30,  1849. 


92 


EXPENDITURES    OF    THE    WAK. 


The  whole  expenditures  *  of  the  Government  of  the 
United  States,  for  the  year  ending  June  30th, 
1847,  were  ..." $59,451,000 

Whole  expenditures  of  the  year  ending  June  30th, 

1848 58.241,000 

Estimated  expenditures  of  the  year  ending  June  30th, 

1849 54,195,000 

$171,887,000 

The  expenditures  of  the  three  previous  years,  how 
ever,  viz.,  1844,  1845,  and  1846,  were  only  .  .  90,957.000 

Leaving  the  round  sum  of $80,930.000 

which   may  chiefly  be  attributed  to  the  war  with 
Mexico. 

If  to  this  sum  we  add  the  money  to  be  paid  to  Mex 
ico  for  new  territories  ......  15.000.000 

Extra  pay  for  three  months,  allowed  by  Congress, 
July  19,  1848,  to  all  soldiers,  computed  by  the  Se 
cretary  of  War  at  from  80  to  100,000,  engaged  in 
the  war,  say  .  .  , 2,000.000 

Claims,  for  which  the  Government  is  liable        .         .  3.250.000 

We  have  the  sum  of $101,180,000 

as  the  direct  expenditure  of  the  war. 


If  we  take  anotlier,f  more  specific  method,  we  arrive  at 
nearly  the  same  result. 


Expenditures  of  1845  -  6  over  those  of  1844  -  5,  at 
tributable  to  Gen.  Taylor's  movements  .  .  .  $4,299,000 

Expenditures  of  army  and  navy  proper.  1846-7,  over 

those  of  previous  years 30,777.000 

Ditto,  1846-8 31,715,000 

Other  increased  expenditures  of  the  War  Depart 
ment  over  those  of  previous  years  .  .  .  15,217,000 

Expenditures  after  June  30th,  1848,  for  return  of 

troops,  etc.  etc 4.000.000 

For  new  territories     .......  15.000.000 

Extra  pay 2.000.000 

Claims         ....                 ....  3.250,000 

By  which  we  have. $106.258,000 

as  the  sum  of  the  positive  expenditures,  independ 
ently  of  the  endless  array  of  bounties,  pensions, 
and  claims,  which  will  now  pour  like  the  Gulf 
Stream  into  Congress. 


*  See  Official  Documents. 
t  See  Official  Documents. 


EXPENDITURES    OF   THE    WAR.  93 

When  to  this  sum,  which  has  been  a  direct  cost,  we  add 
the  long  array  of  indirect  expenditures,  that  will  stretch 
through  the  next  half  century,  to  reward  the  officers  and 
soldiers  engaged  in  this  war ;  the  injury  to  the  business  of 
the  country,  by  withdrawing  so  many  millions  of  capital, 
and  scattering  it  over  a  foreign  land ;  the  destruction  of  so 
many  thousand  lives,  the  loss  of  health  to  so  many  thousand 
more,  thus  sinking  a  large  amount  of  the  productive  labor 
of  the  country ;  the  employment  of  multitudes  in  the  barren 
and  unproductive  work  of  equipping  the  warrior,  the  war- 
horse,  and  the  war-ship,  with  their  enginery  of  death,  be 
sides  the  using  of  military  stores  and  arms  in  arsenals  ;  and 
the  interruption  of  business,  consequent  upon  a  state  of  war 
with  one  of  our  trading  neighbors ;  then  we  shall  not  think 
it  extravagant  to  say,  that  the  indirect  cost  of  the  war,  were 
it  ferretted  out  in  all  its  particulars,  would  equal  the  direct 
expenditure,  and  amount  to  $100,000,000  more  ;  thus  swell 
ing  the  grand  total  to  $200,000,000. 

To  fortify  these  results,  we  will  adduce  some  other  con 
siderations,  relative  to  the  finances  of  the  war.  Thus  the 
military  and  naval  appropriations  for  the  year  ending  June, 
1847,  were  $40,863,155.96  ;  for  the  year  ending  June,  1848, 
$31,377,079.92;  and,  for  the  year  ending  June,  1849,  $42, 
224,000  ;  amounting,  in  all,  to  $114,466,835.88.  A  part  of 
this  sum  goes  for  other  expenditures  than  those  of  the  Mex 
ican  hostilities ;  but  this  sum  does  not  include  the  price  paid 
for  California  and  New  Mexico,  the  claims  which  the  United 
States  have  obligated  themselves  to  pay,  and  the  bounty  of 
1 60  acres  of  land  *  to  every  volunteer,  making,  as  has  been 

*  "  The  Mexican  War  land-warrants  will  greatly  outnumber  those 
of  the  Revolution,  or  the  war  of  1812,  as  there  are  many  more  sol 
diers.  They  are  worth  more,  also,  as  there  is  a  wider  field  allowed  for 
selections.  All  the  soldiers,  who  volunteered  for  twelve  months,  are 
entitled  to  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  land,  and  the  six  months' 
volunteers  are  entitled  to  eighty  acres.  The  wife,  children,  father,  or 


94  EXPENDITURES    OF  THE    WAR. 

computed,  for  60,000  men  9,600,000  acres,  or  $6,000,000  in 
Treasury  scrip,  if  the  soldiers  or  their  heirs  prefer  to  -take 
the  equivalent ;  to  say  nothing  of  the  large  sums  which  were 
voted  by  State  Legislatures,  or  contributed  by  individuals,  to 
equip  and  furnish  the  volunteer  regiments  and  their  officers, 
and  the  thousands  and  the  tens  of  thousands  expended  in 
welcoming  back,  in  a  festive  manner,  the  survivors,  on  their 
return  home. 

One  Senator  stated,  in  his  official  place,  that  the  war  was 
costing,  at  one  period,  at  the  rate  of  $500,000  per  diem. 

Another  said :  "  I  am  satisfied,  that  one  year  of  this  war 
will  cost  us  about  $100,000,000."  He  then  cited  the  appro 
priations,  to  justify  such  an  inference.  For  the  army  alone  : 

By  the  Act  of  the  13th  May,  1846  ....  $10,000.000 
By  the  Act  of  the  20th  June  ...  ,  12.000,000 

By  the  Act  of  the  8th  August 2.200,000 

$24,200,000 
Raised  by  loans,  to  meet  war  expenses  : 

By  the  Act  of  the  20th  of  July $10.000.000 

By  the  Act  passed  winter  session,  1846-7    .         .         .  23,000.000 

Surplus  in  the  treasury  when  the  war  began,  consumed,  12.000,000 
The  necessary  appropriations,  to  be  passed  the  same 

session       .                 ....  50.000.000 


Total* $119,200,000 

Such  were  the  expenditures  made,  or  estimated,  up  to 

^ 

mother,  of  soldiers  who  died  in  the  service,  are  allowed  the  same  quan 
tity  of  land."  —  Newburyport  Herald. 

#  The  Secretary  of  War  says,  Appendix  to  the  Congressional  Globe, 
30th  Congress,  2d  Session,  p.  22  :  •'  More  than  60.000  claims  have  been 
presented  under  the  Act  of  llth  Feb.  1847,  for  bounty  land  and  trea 
sury  scrip  About  40,000  have  been  acted  on  and  allowed  ;  20.000  are 
now  pending;  and  it  is  estimated  that  there  are  40.000  yet  to  be  pre 
sented."  See,  also,  30th  Congress,  2d  Session,  Ex.  Doc.  Xo.  1,  p.  369. 
90,000  claims  had  been  presented,  May,  1849,  as  we  karat  by  personai 
inquiry  at  the  War  Etepartmctit. 


EXPENDITURES    OF  THE   WAR.  95 

March  3,  1847,  according  to  the  uncontradicted  statements 
of  a  United  States  Senator,  made  in  his  seat. 

A  distinguished  Governor  of  Tennessee,  an  advocate  of 
the  war,  declared,  in  a  public  address,  that  the  expenses 
would  be  88,000,000  per  month. 

Colonel  Doniphan's  regiment  of  mounted  dragoons  con 
sisted  of  1,000  men.  They  volunteered  for  one  year.  When 
they  returned  home,  each  of  them  received  $560  for  his  pay, 
his  horse,  etc.,  and  his  land  scrip  in  addition  ;  making,  in  all, 
the  sum  of  8750,000. 

The  claims  of  citizens  of  California  against  the  United 
States,  for  money  and  supplies  furnished  by  them  during  the 
war,  amounted  to  8500,000  or  $800,000.* 

The  President,  in  a  Message  to  Congress,  dated  July  6, 
1848,  stated  that  the  debt  of  the  United  States,  before  the 
war  began,  was  $17,788,799.62;  and  that,  in  consequence 
of  the  war,  it  had  been  increased  to  865,778,450.41  ;  thus 
making  the  actual  war  debt  $47,989,650.79.  He  then  says, 
that  812,000,000  were  to  be  paid  to  Mexico;  and  that  the 
unliquidated  claims,  assumed  by  the  United  States,  were 
$1,519,604.76,  and  the  interest  thereon;  all  which,  added  to 
the  above  sum,  make  the  total  of  a  direct  debt  of  $61,509, 
255.55,  in  July,  1848,  according  to  the  admission  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States. 

From  these  and  a  variety  of  other  facts  of  a  similar  char 
acter,  we  draw  the  conclusion  that  this  war  cost  the  United 
States,  directly  and  indirectly,  at  a  moderate  computation, 
$200,000,000,  and  that  it  cost  Mexico,  directly  and  indi 
rectly,  an  equal  sum. 

Suppose  this  sum  were  allotted  to  be  paid  by  the  people 
of  this  country  at  so  much  a  poll,  and  reckon  the  population 
at  20,000,000,  then  each  man,  woman,  and  child,  would 


*  30th  Congress,  1st  Session,  Senate,  Rep.  Com-.  No.  75,  pp» 
7,  16,  50. 


96  EXPENDITURES    OF    THE    WAR. 

be  laid  under  a  direct  tax  of  $10,  or  say,  on  an  average, 
each  family,  of  S50.  Or.  if  we  suppose  the  actual  expen 
ses  to  come  within  the  exceedingly  moderate  estimate  of 
8100,000,000,  we  should  then  have  a  direct  tax  of  So  a 
head.  And  if  the  levy  were  made  not  according  to  heads, 
but  purses,  the  burden  would  fall  on  men  in  proportion  to 
their  ability  to  pay,  and  every  man  of  substance  would  ask 
with  an  increased  interest,  "What  is  the  Mexican  war? 
Why  was  it  fought  ?  And  what  are  its  pleas  and  benefit.-  ? 

As  the  war  was  ostensibly  prosecuted,  in  part,  for  the 
ends  of  a  suit  at  law,  to  recover  a  bad  debt  of  an  unwilling 
debtor,  the  result  has  taught  the  old  lesson  of  the  folly  of 
going  to  laAV  for  a  redress  of  grievances.  The  report  of 
the  commission  that  sat  nearly  two  years  on  the  United 
States'  claims  for  Mexican  spoliations  upon  her  commerce, 
states  that 

The  whole  amount  claimed  was     .        .        .  '  8 11, 850,") 78.49 

The  two  Mexican  Commissioners  agreed  in  allow 
ance  of  only          .  630,406.76 

The  two  American  Commissioners  allowed    .         .  3,846,311.00 

Awarded  !>y  the  Prussian  umpire,    Baron 

Koenne  ' $1,586,745.00 

Ay-reed  bv  all  the  Commissioners     .  439.393.00 


Total  finally  allowed       .         .  S2.02G,  138.00 

This  was  the  original  legal  and  conceded  debt  of  Mexico 
to  the  United  States.  Her  finances  were  embarrassed,  and 
she  did  not  meet  her  engagements.  Nations,  like  individ 
uals,  find  it  hard  to  pay  old  debts  ;  and  the  older  the  harder. 
Witness  France,  witness  the  United  States,  witness  Spain, 
witness  every  nation.  But  in  1843  a  new  treaty  was  en 
tered  into,  and  Mexico  agreed  to  pay  promptly  and  in 
regular  instalments,  principal  and  interest.  But  she  was 
poor  and  revolutionary,  and  the  Texan  difficulties,  and  her 
jealousy  of  the  United  States,  increased  the  embarrassment, 
and  perhaps,  as  was  natural,  the  indisposition  to  pay.  So  is 
it  explicitly  declared  by  Mr.  Voss.  the  American  agent,  in 


EXPENDITURES    OF    THE    WAR.  97 

an  official  letter.  Some  of  the  instalments  were  prompt 
ly  paid,  all  were  declared  good,  but  procrastination  prevailed 
in  the  Mexican  councils,  and  the  United  States  naturally 
became  indignant  and  impatient.  This  is  one  of  the  final 
and  alleged  causes  of  the  war,  that  Mexico  would  not  pay 
her  honest  debts.  But  even  if  she  did  not,  it  was  a  costly 
method  to  collect  the  dues,  to  send  Generals  Taylor  and 
Scott,  and  Commodores  Conner,  Perry,  Sloat,  and  Stockton, 
as  sheriffs,  with  such  an  expensive  posse  comitatus  to  levy 
on  the  Mexican  estate  and  pay  the  debt  by  such  an  execution. 
"  It  was,"  to  use  the  homely  phrase  of  the  American  philo 
sopher,  "paying  too  dear  for  the  whistle."  Then,  too,  it 
was  not  for  us,  who  have  waited  long  decades  of  years  for 
the  old  European  monarchies  to  pay  up  for  the  spoliations 
they  committed  on  our  commerce  ;  and  who,  even  when  they 
did  pay,  delayed  promptly  to  disburse  to  the  private  claim 
ants  ;  it  was  not  for  us,  who  have  in  too  many  States  repu 
diated  our  debts  ;  it  was  not  for  us,  the  stronger  republic, 
to  force  to  sharp  practice  and  summary  punishment,  our 
younger,  weaker  sister  republic.  It  was  not  a  just  or  a 
magnanimous  act,  and,  —  what  is  mainly  relevant  to,  the 
object  of  this  paragraph,  —  it  was  not  a  profitable  business 
transaction  ;•  for  we  now  pay  for  the  war,  pay  for  the  new 
territory,  and  pay  the  claimants.  . 

The  master-evil  of  war-expenditures,  however,  is  not,  as 
before  hinted,  so  much  in  the  money  that  is  lost,  as  the 
spirit  that  is  left  behind.  This  point  has  been  so  ably  set 
forth  by  the  Democratic  Review  of  February,  1847,  that  we 
need  not  apologize  for  quoting  its  language.  "  It  is  not 
filone  the  war,  and  the  expense,  great  though  it  be,  that  is 
to  be  dreaded.  We  are  rich  and  industrious,  and  having 
plenty  of  resources,  can  pay  any  sum1*.  A  protracted  war 
is,  however,  building  up  a  great  military  interest  heretofore 
unknown  to  our  institutions.  The  great  peril  which  destroyed 
Mexico  we  are.  about  to  encounter.  The  long  Spanish  war 
9 


9$  EXPENDITURES    OF    THE    Tf  AH, 

of  independence  stifled  her  industry  and  smothered  lie? 
commerce.  No  interest  flourished  but  the  military,  and  her 
liberties  ultimately  perished  in  its  giant  gripe.  This  in 
terest,  having  no  sympathy  with  industrial  pursuits,  in  its 
nature  aristocratic,  is  already  rapidly  growing  among  us= 
A  few  years  only  will  consolidate  its  strength,  and  spread 
its  influence  through  all  the  ramifications  of  contractors  and 
employees,  dependent  upon  war  expenditures.  Such  an  in 
terest  is  one  to  be  dreaded,  perhaps,  more  than  any  other, 
when  we  reflect  upon  the  materials  of  strife  within  us,  the 
rancor  of  party  spirit,  and  the  recklessness  of  fanaticism." 

A  further  consideration  which  will  impress  upon  us  more 
vividly  the  wickedness  of  "  the  waste  of  treasure "  in  war,  is 
the  various  beneficial  uses  to  which  such  mighty  sums  of 
money  might  be  devoted.  If  "  moneys/'  as  the  old  Roman 
said,  "are  the  sinews  of  war,"  so  are  they  also  the  sinews 
of  peace.  If  the '"dollar"  be  not  '-almighty/'  and  the  god 
of  this  world,  it  is  at  least  an  essential  instrument  in  pro 
moting  every  good  word  and  work  among  mankind.  Money 
builds  the  city,  and  beautifies  the  country.  Money  fills  the 
sails  and  turns  the  water- wheel.  Money  tunnels  the  moun 
tains,  and  barricades  the  rivers.  Money  speeds  the  loom, 
and  propels  the  cars,  and  operates  the  telegraph.  Money 
gives  food  to  the  well  and  medicine  to  the  sick.  Money 
clothes  our  bodies  and  raises  our  houses.  Money  erects 
the  sclioolliouse  and  the  sanctuary,  and  puts  a  teacher  in 
one  and  a  preacher  in  the  other.  Money  multiplies  the 
Scriptures,  and  heralds  the  blessed  news  of  salvation  from 
clime  to  clime.  It  is  money  that  is  needed  at  this  moment, 
as  the  great  cooperator,  to  send  civilization  and  Chris 
tianity  to  those  who  are  now  sitting  in  darkness  and  the 
shadow  of  death,  as  well  as  to  re-civilize  civilization  itself, 
and  to  re-Christianize  Christendom.  Money,  money,  is  the 
call  of  the  educator,  the  reformer,  the  philanthropist,  the 
missionary;  and  it  is  not  a  selfish  call;  for  by  this  power 


EXPENDITURES    OF    THE    WAR.  09 

the  printing,  and  teaching,  and  speaking,  and  exploring,  and 
travelling,  are  physically  sustained,  and  "  seed  is  given  to 
the  sower,  and  bread  to  the  eater." 

In  this  light,  consider  that  the  8200,000,000  of  money 
squandered  in  this  unjust,  unnecessary,  and  unconstitutional 
war,  would  found  a  library  in  each  of  the  ten  largest  cities 
of  the  United  States,  namely,  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
Baltimore,  Boston,  New  Orleans,  Cincinnati,  Brooklyn, 
Albany,  and  Washington,  which  should  contain  as  many 
volumes  as  the  largest  library  on  the  continent  of  Europe, 
and  endow  it  with  a  princely  fund  sufficient  to  keep  it  in 
repair,  and  enrich  it  with  the  accessions  of  all  living  liter 
ature  from  every  nation,  thus  opening  inexhaustible  foun 
tains  of  knowledge  for  all  future  generations,  and  placing 
the  interests  of  learning  on  a  foundation  worthy  of  the  first 
republic  on  earth. 

Or,  suppose  this  sum  devoted  to  the  endowment  of  com 
mon  schools,  academies,  and  colleges,  of  agricultural,  reform 
atory,  scientific,  normal,  and  professional  seminaries  of  in 
struction ;  and  to  the  establishment  of  Lyceums,  Lowell 
Institutes,  Adult  Schools,  Teacher's  Institutes,  and  then  a 
magnificent  apparatus  of  means  and  agencies  of  every  de 
scription  would  be  provided  to  cultivate  what  the  poet  has 

called 

';  Acres  of  unfilled  brains," 

to  develope  the  mighty  mind  and  the  great  heart  of  our 
America,  and  to  prevent  the  hourly  repetition  of  that  pa 
thetic  "  tragedy,"  of  which  the  prose-poet  speaks,  "  that  there 
should  one  man  die  ignorant  who  had  the  capacity  for 
knowledge." 

Imagine  such  a  sum  employed  in  the  industrial  and  ma 
terial  improvements  of  a  country,  to  give  security  to  its 
navigation  and  commerce ;  to  facilitate  domestic  and  foreign 
intercourse;  to  bind  city  to  city,  and  State  to  State,  and 
nation  to  nation,  in  harmonious  cooperation  ;  to  develope  the 


100  EXPENDITURES    OF   THE    WAR. 

physical  and  mineral  resources  of  the  earth,  and  make  her 
not  the  step-mother,  but  the  own  mother,  of  her  children ; 
and  how  many  millions  of  naked  would  be  clothed,  and  how 
many  millions  of  the  hungry  would  be  fed,  and  how  much 
time  would  be  redeemed  from  inexorable  toil  to  devote  to 
the  higher  culture  of  our  nature,  and  to  the  making  not  of 
money,  but  of  men,  worthy  to  be  called  men ! 

Or,  were  it  expended  in  the  fine  and  the  useful  arts,  to 
join  everywhere  in  eternal  union,  beauty  and  utility;  to 
stimulate  and  reward  invention ;  to  carry  all  the  sciences, 
and,  consequently,  all  the  arts  depending  upon  them,  to  a 
higher  state  of  perfection ;  to  multiply  in  the  cities  and 
habitations  of  a  free  people  the  rarest  productions  of  archi 
tecture,  painting,  sculpture, — the  works  of  genius  baptized 
into  the  name  of  Christ;  how  ample  would  be  the  in 
strumentalities  for  developing  such  a  national  character  as 
the  world  has  never  before  seen,  except  jn  the  dream  of 
some  rapt  sage,  or  the  vision  of  some  inspired  prophet ! 

Let  it  be  consecrated  on  the  altar  of  philanthropy,  and 
what  chain  would  not  be  broken,  what  prisoner  not  vis 
ited,  what  sick  untended,  what  beggar  unrelieved,  what  in 
sane  given  over,  what  idiot  abandoned,  what  blind,  or  deaf, 
or  dumb,  or  maimed  uncared  for,  what  inebriate  unreformed, 
what  licentious  not  purified,  and  what  criminal  uninstructed 
and  unrecovered ! 

Or,  propose  the  sublimest  of  the  works  done,  or  to  be  done 
in  this  world,  and  the  one  in  a  manner  comprehending  all  the 
other  enterprises  referred  to,  we  mean  the  Christianizing  of 
the  whole  world,  the  sanctification  of  the  five  human  races ; 
and  in  the  interest  alone  of  this  gigantic  war-bill  we  should 
find  abundant  means,  so  far  as  pecuniary  resources  are  con 
cerned,  to  set  in  operation  forty-eight  majestic  missionary  and 
Bible  societies,,  as  large  as  the  American  Board,  and  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  to  work  with  omnipres 
ent  and  almost  omnipotent  power  in  every  land,  and  shed  the 


EXPENDITURES    OF    THE    WAR.  101 

light  of  divine  truth  and  mercy  in  every  benighted  heart  and 
habitation,  and  plant  the  churches  of  the  Redeemer  on  every 
hill-top  and  in  every  valley  from  pole  to  pole.  Call  it  not 
folly  or  fanaticism  to  imagine  such  a  Millennium.  It  was 
once  the  hope  of  prophecy  ;  it  was  later  the  vision  of  Christ ; 
and  it  shall  one  day  be  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth. 

If  this  be  our  strength  and  glory  to  raise  money,  and  ex 
pend  it  in  wicked  and  wasteful  wars,  tormenting  our  neigh 
bors  and  ourselves,  then  is  our  strength  weakness,  and  our 
glory  shame.  If  a  whole  nation  will  expend  without  reluct 
ance  their  kingly  treasures,  (that  might  constitute  the  moral 
lever  to  raise  the  earth,)  in  the  arts  of  human  butchery  and 
misery,  in  conquest  and  invasion,  what  title  has  it  to  be 
called  a  Christian  nation  ?  It  has  none.  It  is  a  heathen 
people  with  a  Christian  cloak  ;  heathen  in  spirit,  and  heathen 
in  practice.  We  may  cry,  "  Lord,  Lord,"  but  the  use  of  holy 
words  cannot  save  the  workers  of  iniquity  from  the  condem 
nation  of  the  Judge  of  all. 

In  concluding  this  chapter,  a  practical  question  suggests 
itself ;  how  shall  the  masses  of  a  nation  be  made  to  feel  the 
abomination  of  spending  hundreds  of  millions  in  war  ?  and 
how  shall  the  future  be  exempted  from  the  grinding  injustice 
of  having  its  labor  and  property  mortgaged  in  advance,  and 
forever  crippled  by  the  war-debts  of  the  past  ?  In  one  way, 
and  we  believe  in  one  way  only.  Let  these  untold  millions 
be  paid  at  once  by  a  direct  tax.  Pay  as  you  go,  should  be 
the  rule  of  nations  as  well  as  of  individuals.  We  have  no 
right  to  make  our  children  settle  with  their  toil  and  tears  the 
debts  of  our  folly.  Now  the  wrar-expenses  are  not  felt,  be 
cause  they  come  obliquely  and  stealthily,  and  are  so  mixed 
up  with  tariffs  and  indirect  taxes,  and  the  consumption  of  the 
proceeds  of  the  public  lands,  that  few  understand  their  ope 
ration.  But  apply  the  principle  of  a  direct  tax,  and  every 
man  in  the  community  would  inquire  into  the  merits  and  de 
merits  of  a  war,  and  would  not  fail  to  clamor  loudly  and 

9* 


102  THE    DESTRUCTION    OF    HUMAN    LIFE. 

effectually  against  all  wars  of  aggression,  invasion,  conquest, 
and  slavery.  We  are  happy  to  strengthen  our  position  by 
the  opinion  of  one  of  the  ablest  Judges  on  the  Bench  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.*  "  All  wars  should  be 
accomplished  by  a  system  of  direct  and  internal  taxation. 
Nothing  short  of  this  can  show,  in  addition  to  sacrifice  of  life, 
what  we  pay  for  military  glory.  This  was  the  policy  in  the 
better  days  of  the  Republic." 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE   DESTRUCTION    OF   HUMAN    LIFE. 

"  Seek,  —  bum,  —  fire,  —  kill,  —  slay:' 

"  Food  for  powder,  food  for  powder."  —  SIIAKSPEARE. 

PHYSICIANS  are  accustomed  to  make  an  examination,  af 
ter  the  disease  has  proved  fatal,  in  order  to  ascertain  more 
clearly  its  seat,  causes,  and  diagnosis.  It  is  not  a  grateful 
task  to  enter  into  the  bloody  chambers,  where  life  was  mys 
teriously  hidden ;  but  they  do  it  for  the  sake  of  the  living, 
and  to  prevent  the  repetition  of  like  effects.  The  moralist 
and  Christian,  too,  are  sometimes  obliged  to  make,  so  to 
speak,  post  mortem  examinations,  for  however  painful  it  may 
be  to  live  over  again  scenes  of  violence  and  wrong,  and  to  follow 
the  track  of  armies,  yet  they  feel  it  to  be  a  duty  if  they  can 
by  this  means  obtain  powerful  evidences  in  behalf  of  the  cause 
they  advocate.  They  wish  thus  to  call  the  surgeon,  as  well 
as  the  financier,  to  testify  to  the  evils  of  war,  and  to  invoke 

*  Judge  McLean. 


THE    DESTRUCTION    OF    HUMAN    LIFE.  l'U3 

the  hospital  no  less  than  the  exchange,  to  pronounce  its  con 
demning  sentence. 

But  here,  as  in  the  matter  of  war-expenditures,  the  very 
immensity  of  the  suffering — wounds,  maiming,  sickness,  death, 
caused  by  war, —  staggers  our  conception,  and  paralyzes  our 
imagination.  When  we  read  that  a  tliousand  nien  died  in 
battle,  that  two  thousand  were  sick'  in  the  hospital,  we  no 
more  realize  that  infinite  sum  of  misery  than  we  do  the  length 
of  eternity.  But  let  only  one  image  of  personal  agony  rise 
vividly  before  us,  —  the  active,  hopeful,  widely-endeared 
young  man,  reeling  headlong  from  his  horse,  crushed  and 
bleeding  by  the  terrible  cannon  ball,  —  or  the  father  on  whom 
a  whole  family  depends,  languishing  month  after  month  in  a 
foreign  clime,  anxious,  weak,  pained,  dying  by  inches,  witk 
no  hand  of  wife  or  child  to  bathe  the  fevered  temples,  or  min 
ister  the  healing  cup  ;  and  we  have  a  deeper  impression  of 
the  unutterable  miseries  of  war  than  solid  pages  of  statistics 
could  give  us.  And  if  we  could  then  multiply  one  by  many, 
and  consider  what  a  single  hostile  meeting  of  armies  is,  and 
does,  could  be  in  it,  and  yet  not  of  it,  -could  view  it  as  a  self- 
possessed  spectator,  could  see  all  the  cruel  machines  of  death 
in  "  awful  activity,"  the  earth  trembling  with  the  thunder  of 
artillery,  the  air  rent  with  shrieks  and  shouts,  the  light  of  the 
Bun  shut  out  by  sulphurous  clouds,  the  waters  running  crim 
son  with  the  heart's  blood  of  thousands,  every  shot  carrying 
away  a  limb  or  a  life,  every  charge  sweeping  to  the  dust  hun 
dreds  of  poor  wounded,  dying  creatures,  we  should  pronounce 
a  battle  the  very  incarnation  of  hell  on  earth. 

But  men  do  not  know  what  war  is,  how  much  of  all  thai 
is  most  fearful  in  pain,  and  terror,  and  suffering,  and  death,  is 
as  surely  drawn  in  its  train,  as  any  cause  leads  to  any  effect. 
Men  at  home  who  make  war,  do  not  know  what  they  are  doing, 
what  mountains  of  misery  and  sin  they  are  heaping  upon 
their  fellow  men  ;  for  if  they  did  know  and  had  not  hearts  of 
flints,  they  would  say,  sooner  than  do  this  thing,  this  infinite 
evil.  •"  perish  our  right  arm  from  its  &ocket,  palsied  be  our 


104  THE"  DESTRUCTION    OF    HUMAN    LIFE. 

tongue  in  our  mouth  !"  Men  in  camp  and  iiekl  become  mail 
ed  and  triple-mailed  in  their  sensibilities  by  their  dreadful 
familiarity  with  exhibitions  of  suffering ;  and  whereas  they 
would  once  have  fainted  at  witnessing  the  slightest  surgical 
operation,  they  can  at  last  look  unmoved  on  the  carnage  of 
Waterloo.  So  that  the  history  of  war,  never  has  been  written, 
and  from  the  necessity  of  the  case,  never  can  be.  We  may 
get  a  glimpse  here  and  there,  where  its  thunder-clouds  are 
parted,  and  we  look  upon  the  ground  strewed  with  the  dead 
and  dying ;  or  where  we  walk  through  its  long  range  of  hos 
pital  wards,  and  hundreds  of  ghastly  faces  start  up  at  the 
sound  of  our  steps ;  but  its  physical,  like  its  other  evils,  are 
too  vast  to  be  comprehended  by  a  finite  mind. 

We  are  accustomed  to  speak  of  the  late  war  between  Mex 
ico  and  the  United  States,  as  if  it  were  the  conflict  of  two 
soulless  generalizations,  two  historical  or  geographical  bodies, 
that  pitched  their  camp  and  arrayed  their  battle,  one  against 
the  other.  The  terms  are  corporate,  political,  and  insensible. 
Happy  indeed  were  it,  if  it  were  the  meeting  of  names 
on  paper,  and  not  of  living  men  in  the  bloody  field. 
Happy  were  it,  even  if  the  old  custom  of  more  chiv 
alrous  days  were  revived,  and  they,  the  historical  personages 
who  make  the  war,  should  themselves  do  the  fighting,  king 
meeting  king,  or  president,  president,  either  in  their  own  per- 
sons,  or  in  the  representatives,  and  substitutes  of  their  res 
pective  choice  and  country.  Rivers  of  blood  would  thus  be 
spared,  and  the  question  subjected  to  an  equally  fair  mode  of 
arbitrament  and  decision.  But  the  nature  of  war,  as  it  is  now 
carried  on,  is  far  different.  It  is  the  personal  conflict  of 
thousands  of  Mexican  men  against  thousands  of  United  States' 
men.  It  is  the  raising  of  hand  against  hand,  and  the  baring 
of  hundreds  of  human  bosoms  to  the  awful  hail  of  balls,  and 
sabre  strokes,  and  lance  and  bayonet  thrusts.  It  is  upon  bodies 
keenly  sensitive  to  the  least  wound,  in  every  vein,  and  nerve, 
and  fibre  of  which  the  Almighty  has  set  the  seal  of  his  crea 
tive  wisdom  and  goodness,  and  which  he  has  made  capable 


t 

THE   DESTRUCTION    OF   HUMAN   LIFE.  105 

of  vast  enjoyment,  and  suffering ;  it  is  upon  head  and  heart, 
upon  life  and  limb,  that  the  bruises  and  lacerations  come, 
smiting,  crushing,  snapping  the  bones  as  if  they  were  worth 
no  more  than  pipe-stems,  rending  open  the  flesh  as  if  it  were 
the  meat  of  the  shambles,  and  battering  to  pieces  the  image 
of  God  as  if  it  were  the  common  clay  of  the  potter.  It  is 
not  Mexico  that  suffers  by  the  war ;  it  is  some  thousands  of 
her  people,  many  of  them  innocent  men,  women,  and  children, 
who  happened  to  come  within  the  reach  of  the  destroying  ball 
and  bomb,  in  the  battle  and  siege.  It  is  not  the  United  States, 
that  has  been  visited  by  pain,  grief,  loss  of  life,  of  health, 
friends,  morals,  through  the  instrumentality  of  this  conflict ; 
but  it  is  certain  men,  families,  living  hearts,  suffering  bodies, 
agonized  souls.  In  looking  then  at  the  tremendous  devasta 
tions  of  war,  let  us  remember  that  they  all  fall  on  individual 
human  beings,  and  not  on  soulless  corporations,  insensible 
nations,  or  geographical  names. 

This  destruction  of  human  life  in  any  aspect  in  which  we 
can  view  it,  is  a  complex  evil.  It  has  branches  of  mischief 
shooting  in  all  directions.  Existence  is  the  free  gift  of  God, 
and  not  lightly  or  unnecessarily  to  be  trifled  with  or  squan 
dered.  Every  man  born  in  a  civilized  community,  reared  to 
manhood,  and  armed  and  equiped  with  the  requisite  training, 
experience,  and  principle  to  act  well  his  part  in  society,  is  to 
be  considered  as  so  much  capital,  invested  for  the  best  good 
of  the  land  he  lives  in,  and  paying  the  rich  percentage  of 
usefulness  and  reciprocity  to  a  large  circle  of  fellow  creatures. 
When  prematurely  taken  away,  before  he  has  lived  out  half 
lu's  days,  by  accident  or  sickness,  we  feel  that  it  is  an  inscru 
table  Providence.  But  when  by  suicide  he  cuts  short  his 
probation,  or  when  by  the  exposures  and  dangers  of  war, 
another  species  of  suicide  in  one  sense,  he  dies  before  his 
time,  there  is  a  great  and  positive  loss  to  every  interest  of 
the  community.  Here  is  a  world  of  work  of  every  kind  to 
do,  the  season  is  pressing,  time  does  not  halt,  the  harvest  is 


106  THE    DESTRUCTION    OF   HUMAN    LIFE. 

white  unto  the  sickle,  but  the  laborers  that  should  enter  into 
this  rich  and  varied  field,  and  reap  fruit  unto  eternal  life,  are 
taken  from  their  families,  and  far  away  are  made  "  food  for 
powder,"  or  mowed  down  by  disease,  as  if  they  were  so  many 
worthless  animals.  Little  calculation  is  made  to  save  their 
lives,  except  as  constituting  one  of  the  prime  materials  for 
war.  In  making  good  a  battle  or  forcing  a  siege,  the  aim 
is  not  to  save  the  men  but  to  gain  the  victory.  Napoleon 
never  hesitated  to  sacrifice  any  number  of  lives,  provided  he 
could  thereby  carry  his  point.  Every  general,  in  order  to  be 
successful,  must  adopt  more  or  less  the  same  principle.  But 
every  man  that  is  offered  upon  the  bloody  plain  to  the  god  of 
battles,  is  one  heart,  one  head,  one  life  less,  to  do  the  great 
work  for  which  men  were  placed  temporarily  on  the  earth, 
—  to  glorify  their  Maker,  and  benefit  one  another.  So  much 
has  been  subtracted  out  of  the  most  valuable  capital  of  a 
country,  which  no  money  can  replace.  A  nation's  life  has 
been  abridged  ;  a  nation's  heart  has  bled  some  great  drops  of 
blood.  Human  life  is  the  basis  and  condition  to  all  other 
good,  and  in  proportion  as  any  considerable  amount  of  it  is 
violently  abstracted  from  the  community,  do  all  the  great  in 
terests  of  humanity  receive  a  sensible  shock. 

In  immediate  connection  with  the  above  considerations  up 
on  the  evils  resulting  from  the  loss  of  life  in  war,  it  should  be 
added  that  it  has  especially  a  barbarizing  influence  upon  the 
humane  and  moral  sentiments  of  a  people.  This  is  true  even 
of  the  wholesale  mortality  produced  by  the  plague,  cholera, 
famine,  earthquake,  or  volcano.  The  heart  of  a  community 
is  apparently  stunned  by  the  frequent  presence  of  death.  De 
foe,  in  his  history  of  the  plague  in  London,  records  with  graph 
ic  simplicity  the  dreadful  brutality  and  wickedness  of  the 
survivors,  even  while  they  were  admonished  every  instant 
that  death  was  at  the  door,  if  not  rioting  in  the  house.  Much 
more  does  the  waste  of  human  life  by  agencies  of  man's  own 
choosing  and  operating,  harden  the  heart,  and  paralyze  the 


THE    DESTRUCTION    OF    HUMAN    LIFE.  107 

conscience.  "War  is  the  most  formidable  of  these  agencies. 
It  is  "  Death  on  the  pale  horse,"  seen  by  the  Revelator,*  "  and 
hell  followed  with  him."  "  And  power  was  given  unto  them 
over  the  fourth  part  of  the  earth,  to  kill  with  sword,  and 
with  hunger,  and  with  death,  and  with  the  beasts  of  the  earth." 
In  proportion  as  a  Christian  civilization  has  made  its  benefi 
cent  way  among  men,  it  has  raised  the  value  of  man,  shown 
his  worth,  and  dignity,  and  set  a  higher  price  upon  his  life. 
Gross  and  savage  customs  have  been  ameliorated,  or  done 
away.  All  that  relates  to  human  comfort,  and  welfare,  has 
been  invested  with  a  new  and  sublime  interest,  because  of 
the  nature  and  destiny  of  the  being  in  whom  it  centres.  But 
war,  waged  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances,  and  with 
all  possible  palliations  and  neutralizing  influences,  arrests 
these  humane  movements,  revives  the  barbarian , estimate  of 
life,  and  all  that  appertains  to  it,  and  strides  on  to  its  infernal 
revelry  of  blood  and  glory,  though  it  send  the  voice  of  lamen 
tation  and  woe  through  the  homes  of  a  whole  people.  The 
oft-repeated  spectacle  of  death  under  every  shocking  mode  of 
agony,  mutilation,  carnage,  and  disease,  steels  the  heart  of 
the  spectator.  The  news  of  it,  also,  sent  far  and  wide  on  the 
wings  of  a  war-literature  and  a  martial  press,  produces  a  de 
moralizing  influence  upon  a  whole  nation.  Human  life  be 
comes  cheap  in  view  of  these  immense  butcheries,  and  then 
human  virtue  too  is  undervalued.  Men  care  less  what  they 
say,  or  do,  or  how  they  live.  A  spirit  of  recklessness  is  en 
gendered.  Crimes  increase  in  number  and  in  turpitude.  Of 
fences  against  person  and  life  are  multiplied  by  the  contagion 
of  the  camp,  and  the  brilliant  examples  of  the  battle-field. 
Many  are  ready  to  dispute  the  maxim,  that  one  murder  does 
make  a  villain,  if  millions  make  a  hero.  'They  emulate  the 
daring  spirit,  and  the  summary  Indian  justice  of  war,  that  de 
mands  eye  for  eye,  and  tooth  for  tooth,  and  life  for  life.  A 
whole  Christian  people  may  thus  be  sensibly  degraded  by  the 

*  Rev.  6:  8. 


108  THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  HUMAN  LIFE. 

waste  of  human  life,  and  the  means  by  which  it  is  effected, 
and  fall  to  a  lower  standard  of  morals  and  public  order.  This 
is  not  one  of  the  least  evils  of  war. 

It  is  quite  as  difficult  to  ascertain  accurately  the  mortality, 
as  it  is  the  cost  of  the  Mexican  war.  Persons  of  different 
views  and  temperaments  will  give  different  estimates. 
All  that  we  can  accomplish  in  either  of  these  matters,  is 
an  approximation  to  the  reality.  National  governments 
do  not  feel  it  to  be  a  duty  to  render  such  an  account 
of  their  doings,  that  the  people  at  large  can  see  how  much 
is  the  cost  in  life,  limb,  and  dollars  of  their  "glory." 
No  open  and  intelligible  debt-and-credit  account  is  kept. 
Besides,  the  books  cannot  be  "  posted  up,"  till  many  years 
after  the  war.  We  have  to  glean  therefore,  the  census 
of  death  from  many  unsatisfactory  sources,  but  Ave  shall 
endeavor  to  avoid  the  common  sin  of  exaggeration,  and 
to  justify  all  inferences  by  well-authenticated  facts. 

There  were  some  causes  which  rendered  the  late  con 
flict  peculiarly  fatal  to  life.  The  scene  of  strife  was  not, 
as  in  the  Revolutionary  war,  that  of  1812,  or  the  Florida 
war,  within  our  own  borders.  We  were  invaders  of  a 
foreign  land.  We  dared  the  burning  Line.  A  long  march 
by  land,  or  a  voyage  by  sea,  transported  the  combatants 
to  the  scene  of  action.  Their  food,  climate,  habits 
were  changed.  If  sick  or  wounded,  they  were  too  far 
from  home  for  wife  or  sister  to  visit  them,  too  far  to 
be  easily  restored  to  their  friends.  The  process  of  accli 
mation  had  to  be  encountered  under  the  most  unfavorable 
circumstances.  Fever,  vomito,  dysentery,  erysipelas,  and 
other  disorders  raged  among  the  troops  with  terrible  viru 
lence.  Far  more  perished  in  the  hospitals  than  in  the 
field.  The  deaths  at  the  city  of  Mexico  among  the  Ameri 
can  soldiery  averaged  a  thousand  a  month  for  a  considerable 
time  after  they  occupied  "  the  halls  of  the  Montezumas, " 
and  three  or  four  hundred  a  month  afterwards.  The 


THE   DESTRUCTION   OF  HUMAN   LIFE.  109 

wounded  very  generally  died  by  the  effects  of  the  climate, 
and  the  access  of  sickness.  The  fact,  too,  that  so  large 
a  portion  of  the  trogps  were  raw  volunteers,  wholly  unused 
to  a  soldier's  life,  and  often  unwilling  to  submit  to  the 
necessary  sanitary  regulations  of  the  army,  accounts  in 
part  for  the  almost  incredible  expenditure  of  life.  Many, 
also,  that  escaped  death  brought  home  broken  constitu 
tions,  and  hacked  and  shattered  frames,  and  will  linger 
out  a  species  of  living  death  the  rest  of  their  days.  The 
dissipation  of  the  camp,  too,  prostrated  hundreds,  and  re 
turned  many  a  once  athletic  young  man  to  his  friends 
decrepit  in  mind  and  body. 

While  on  the  side  of  the  Mexicans,  (whose  woes  and 
losses  now  at  least,  if  not  before,  we  may  consider  and 
regret,  since  we  are  at  peace,  and  friends  again,)  the  loss 
in  battle  was  very  great  from  the  precision  and  rapidity 
of  the  American  fire,  and  the  greater  number  of  troops 
they  had  in  the  field.  They  were  also  ill  provided  with 
the  necessary  supplies  of  food  and  clothing,  and  camp 
equipments.  The  army  of  Santa  Anna  was  in  great  des 
titution  before  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista;  and  after  its 
retreat,  the  road-side  was  encumbered  for  sixty  leagues  with 
those  who  were  dying  of  hunger  and  thirst.  We  have 
no  accurate  statements  of  the  number  of  soldiers  on  the  side 
of  Mexico  engaged  in  the  war ;  but  we  should  set  the 
estimate  no  doubt  within  very  moderate  bounds,  if  we 
should  say,  that  three  times  the  number  compared  with  our 
troops  were  in  the  field,  and  that  the  loss  in  battle  averaged 
three  times  as  much  ;  and  that  the  loss  in  battle  and  sickness 
together  was  as  much  or  more  than  that  of  the  Americans. 

The  Northern  States,  according  to  one  statement,  fur 
nished  22,130  volunteers,  and  the  Southern  States  43,213, 
in  all,  65,3-40.  The  Northerners  generally  enlisted  for  the 
war  ;  the  Southerners  for  one  year  or  a  less  term. 

The  Report  of  the  Adjutant  General,  April  5,  1848, 

"  10 


110  THE   DESTRUCTION   OF  HUMAN  LIFE. 

to  the  Secretary  of  war  *  "  makes  the  whole  number  of 
the  regular  army  employed  everywhere  in  the  prosecution 
of  the  war,  inclusive  of  December  1847,  about  26,090, 
besides  a  battalion  of  marines,  (350.) "  "  Twenty-nine 
thousand  men  have  been  recruited  since  the  13th  of  May, 
1846."  The  whole  number  of  volunteers  mustered  in  the 
service,  from  May,  1846  was  71,309,  of  which  56,926  were 
finally  accepted.  The  naval  force  was  8,000  at  least. 
When  to  these  numbers  we  add  at  least  5,000  teamsters, 
and  "  the  large  number  of  recruits, "  which  Gen.  Jones 
says,  "arrived  at  Vera  Cruz  and  other  places  in  Mexico," 
and  were  never  reported  or  accounted  for,  we  deem  it  a 
very  moderate  statement  to  make,  that  100,000  Americans 
were  in  Mexico  during  the  war.  t 

Suppose  that  only  one  man  in  five  of  the  100,000  men, 
who  first  and  last  have  been  in  the  war,  has  perished, 
and  the  very  moderate  computation  gives  us  20,000  dead. 
It  has  often  been  stated  in  Congressional  speeches,  that 
the  American  loss  could  not  be  less  than  that  number, 
and  we  believe  it  to  have  been  even  far  more. 

The  hospital  often  proved  more  destructive  even  than 
the  battle-field. 

On  Sept.  3,  1846,  Gen.  Taylor  wrote  from  Camargo, 
"  there  has  been  great  sickness  and  mortality  in  some 
of  the  volunteer  regiments. " 

He  writes  on  June  30,  1847,  at  the  camp  near  Monterey, 
"  it  is  confidently  hoped  that  the  troops  in  that  camp  (near 
Mier)  will  escape,  in  a  great  measure,  such  excessive  sick 
ness  as  prevailed  last  year  at  Camargo,  and  which  is  now 
beginning  to  be  felt  there.  " 

From  the  same  place  he  says,  on  July  27,  1847,  "great 

*30th  Congress,  1st  Session,  Senate,  Ex.  Doc.  No.  30. 

t  In  August.  1846,  Congress  authorized  an  increase  of  the  Navy, 
from  7,500  to  10,000,  but  owing  to  various  circumstances  it  was  not 
increased  to  more  than  8,000. 


THE    DESTRUCTION    OF    HUMAN    LIFE.  Ill 

sickness  and  mortality  have  prevailed  among  the  volunteer 
troops  in  front  of  Saltillo. " 

lie  adds  the  following,  in  a  letter  dated  Camp,  near  Mon 
terey.  Aug.  10,  1847  :  "  There  continues  to  be  much  sickness 
among  the  new  troops,  both  at  Mier  and  Buena  Vista,  ac 
companied  by  an  unusual  share  of  mortality.  Nearly  twenty- 
five  per  cent,  of  the  force  present  is  disabled,  at  this  moment, 
by  disease." 

We  see,  by  these  declarations,  that  the.  great  warrior 
dreaded  the  sweeping  scythe  of  disease,  far  more  than  he 
did  the  sword  of  the  enemy.  Indeed  he  declared,  in  a 
speech  made  at  Port  Hudson,  La.,  on  occasion  of  the  return 
of  the  volunteers,  reported  in  the  newspapers,  1848,  that, 
"  of  those  who  have  died  in  active  service  in  Mexico,  the 
proportion  of  those  cut  down  by  disease  to  those  who  fell  on 
the  battle-field,  is  about  Jive  to  one  !  " 

Besides  the  losses  on  the  field  and  in  the  hospital,  on 
Gen.  Taylor's  line  of  operations,  many  perished  by  the  hand 
of  violence,  —  either  in  private,  or  by  armed  parties  of  gue 
rillas. 

The  sickness  on  the  Vera  Cruz  line  was  even  more  for 
midable  than  on  that  of  the  Rio  Grande.  It  was  a  more 
southern  latitude.  The  tierra  caliente,  or  hot  region,  of  the 
sea-coast,  and  the  tierra  templada,  or  table  land,  of  the  inte 
rior,  and  the  valley  of  Mexico,  were  all  found  to  be  fatal  to 
the  American  soldier.  Gen.  Scott  writes  from  Puebla,  June 
4,  1847,  as  follows :  "  The  effective  strength  of  this  army 
has  been  surprisingly  reduced.  Besides  the  discharge  of 
seven  regiments,  and  two  independent  companies,  of  old 
volunteers,  we  had  to  leave  in  hospital  about  1,000  men  at 
Vera  Cruz,  as  many  sick  and  wounded  at  Jalapa,  and  200 
sick  at  Perote.  Here  we  have  on  the  sick  report  1,017. 
Not  a  corps  has  made  a  forced  march,  except  in  the  pursuit 
'  after  the  battle  of  Cerro  Gordo,  and  every  possible  attention 
has  been  given  to  the  health  of  the  troops.  The  general 


112  THE   DESTRUCTION    OP   HUMAN    LIFE. 

sickness  may  be  attributed  to  several  causes :  1.  The  great 
contrast  in  climates,  above  and  below  Cerro  Gordo  ;  2.  The 
insufficiency  of  clothing,  but  little  having  arrived  when  the 
army  marched  from  Vera  Cruz ;  and  3.  The  want  of  salt 
meats,  the  troops  not  having  had  any  oftener  than  one  day 
in  nine,  since  we  reached  the  elevated  country  ;  as  our  insuf 
ficient  means  of  transportation  allowed  us  to  bring  up  only 
small  quantities  of  bacon  and  no  mess  pork.  The  prevailing 
diseases  have  been  chills  and  fevers,  and  diarrhoea." 

On  J\ily  25th,  Gen.  Scott  reported  the  sick  at  Puebla  at 
87  officers  and  2,215  men;  in  all,  2,302. 

Mansfield,  in  his  History  of  the  Mexican  War,  states  that 
Gen.  Scott  left.  Puebla,  on  Aug.  7-10,  with  10,738  men, 
and  that  3,261  were  left  in  garrison  and  in  hospitals.  Of  the 
last,  the  largest  part  were  in  hospital,  where  there  were,  at 
one  time,  no  less  than  1,900  sick !  Of  these,  700  found  their 
graves  at  Puebla ! 

With  3,217  sick  in  the  hospitals  at  Yera  Cruz,  Jalapa, 
Perote,  and  Puebla,  early  in  June,  at  the  very  beginning  of 
the  sickly  season,  and  2,302  at  Puebla  alone,  the  last  of 
July,  and  1,900  in  August,  we  can  imagine  what  must  have 
been  the  later  scenes  of  the  same  summer,  as  the  army 
fought  its  way,  through  quadruple  its  own  numbers,  to  the 
capital  of  the  country.  The  accounts  of  the  mortality  there, 
before  referred  to,  thus  become  perfectly  credible.  The 
names  have  been  published  of  no  less  than  700  men,  who 
died  at  Perote  in  a  few  months.  Even  on  Dec.  4,  1847, 
Gen.  Scott  stated  officially,  that  there  were  2,0-41  sick,  exclu 
sive  of  officers,  in  the  city  of  Mexico. 

Let  us  now  consider  what  have  been  the  losses  of  indivi 
dual  regiments  and  companies,  and  how  they  sustain  the 
above  estimate. 

Of  80  Sappers  and  Miners,  who  left  West  Point  for  the 
battle-fields  of  Mexico,  only  24  returned  home ;  all  the  rest 
having  found  graves  in  that  distant  land. 


THE    DESTRUCTION    OF   HUMAN   LIFE.  113 

Of  the  730  in  the  Ninth  Regiment  of  Infantry,  that  left 
Fort  Adams,  in  1847,  there  were  but  105  or  106  that  re 
turned  home,  in  1848:  14  died  on  the  voyage  from  Vera 
Cruz  home,  between  July  llth  and  August  14th. 

The  South  Carolina  Regiment,  of  1,100,  had,  at  the  end 
of  nine  months,  only  80  or  90  remaining,  to  enter  with  Scott 
the  city  of  Mexico.  "  The  destruction  of  life  in  Napoleon's 
march  to  Moscow  did  not  equal  this." 

Col.  William  B.  Campbell's  First  Regiment  of  Tennessee 
volunteers,  returned  only  350  of  the  1,000  it  carried  into 
Mexico.  The  average  loss  was  50  men  a  month. 

"  The  North  Carolina  Regiment,"  says  an  officer  writing 
from  Buena  Vista,  in  Sept.  1847,  "was  paid  off  the  last  of 
August  on  muster-rolls  made  two  months  previous ;  and 
almost  every  fifth  man  had  died  since  muster.  The  Missis 
sippi  Regiment  had  suffered  still  more..  Companies,  that 
came  into  the  field  85  and  90  strong,  now  number  scarce  30 
men  on  parade." 

Another  officer  writes  from  the  city  of  Mexico :  "  Of 
nearly  400  men,  who  left  Columbus  (Georgia)  in  the  five 
companies,  we  have  not  more  than  40  fit  for  duty.  About 
35  are  in  hospital  at  Jalapa,  and  the  remainder  in  that  of 
Perote." 

Of  G48  men,  in  the  regiment  commanded  by  Gen.  Pierce, 
only  1 20  remained  fit  for  service  in  the  city  of  Mexico. 

Col.  Baker,  Member  of  Congress  from  Illinois,  declared 
in  the  House  of  Representatives,  that  his  regiment  of  volun 
teers  of  820,  lost  100  in  six  months,  in  the  Rio  Grande  Val 
ley  ;  dismissed  200  more,  to  die  by  the  way,  or  find  their 
way  home,  with  constitutions  broken  down.  He  also  said, 
that  the  bones  of  nearly  2,000  young  men,  in  whose  veins 
flowed  some  of  the  best  blood  of  the  country,  who  had  never 
seen  the  face  of  an  enemy,  were  now  resting  in  the  mould  on 
the  banks  of  that  river. 

The  Adjutant  General,  in  answer  to  a  resolution  of  Con- 
10* 


114  THE    DESTRUCTION    OF    HUMAN    LIFE. 

gress,  reported,  Feb.  1847,  that  of  the  volunteers  who  had 
joined  the  army  up  to  that  time,  there  had,  in  a  period  of 
from  sixty  to  ninety  days,  331  deserted ;  76  been  killed  in 
battle  ;  died  of  disease,  637  ;  and  discharged,  in  consequence 
of  sickness  or  disability,  between  2,000  and  3,000  men  ;  or, 
as  stated  by  Mr.  Hudson,  in  a  speech  in  the  House,  Feb.  15, 
1847,  a  loss  of  20  per  cent,  in  about  two  months  and  a  half, 
or  about  eighty  per  cent,  a  year. 

But  it  is  needless  to  accumulate  such  reports.  The  con 
clusion  is  obvious.  Many  put  the  loss  at  20,000,  on  the  part 
of  the  United  States ;  others  raise  it  to  30,000  ;  we  are  safe 
in  saying  it  was  between  20,000  and  25,000. 

And,  as  we  have  already  seen,  if  we  turn  to  the  other  side, 
we  can  have  no  doubt  that  Mexico  suffered  an  equal  mor 
tality.  For  if  the  sickness,  which  was  great  even  among 
the  natives,  was  less,  the  destruction  in  battle  was  treble  or 
quadruple,  if  the  American  bulletins  speak  the  truth. 

Owing  to  the  limited  medical  and  surgical  appointments  of 
the  Mexican  armies,  and  their  poverty  of  means,  great  mul 
titudes  of  the  wounded  perished.  When  we  have  added  to 
the  above  list  the  deaths  by  disease,  we  can  have  no  doubt 
that  20,000  is  a  very  moderate  estimate  for  the  Mexican 
waste  of  life.  Gen.  Scott  computed  that  7,000  Mexican  offi 
cers  and  men  were  killed  and  wounded  in  the  several  battles 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  capital  alone. 

We  conclude,  from  these  various  considerations,  that  the 
mortality  on  both  sides,  during  the  two  years  of  the  exist 
ence  of  the  war,  reached  no  less  than  40,000 ;  or  20,000  a 
year,  or  10,000  annually  on  each  side.  The  reports  of  the 
generals,  the  climate,  the  great  number  of  the  battles,  sieges, 
skirmishes,  being  about  twenty-eight,  the  proportion  lost  in 
single  regiments  and  companies,  and  the  great  proportion 
that  died  by  sickness,  assure  us  that  this  immense  loss  of 
human  life,  with  all  its  attendant  evils,  and  woes,  and  pains, 
is  chargeable  upon  the  authors  and  abettors  of  this  stupen 
dous  system  of  legalized  murder. 


THE    HOSPITAL    AND    THE    BATTLE-FIELD.  115 


CHAPTER    X. 

THE    HOSPITAL    AND    THE   BATTLE-FIELD. 

"  Woe  to  the  hand  that  shed  this  costly  blood  ; 
Over  thy  wounds  now  do  I  prophesy,  — 
Which,  like  dumb  mouths,  do  ope  their  ruby  lips, 
To  beg  the  voice  and  utterance  of  my  tongue  ;  — 
A  curse  shall  light  upon  the  limbs  of  men."  —  SIIAKSPEAKE. 

BQT  besides  the  catalogue  of  the  dead,  there  is  the  great 
army  of  the  wounded  and  the  broken  down,  whose  lot  is 
often  more  pitiable  than  death. 

We  find  either  reported,  or  moderately  computed,  Americans 

wounded      ..........         3,968 

Mexicans         .......  7,210 


Total         .         .         .         .         .        11.178 

Add  as  many  more  sick  and  otherwise  disabled     .         .         .        11,178 

Total         .  -      .         .         .         .        22,356 

No  one  who  read  the  newspapers  during  the  progress  of 
the  war,  can  doubt  that  we  set  the  number  very  much 
within  bounds  when  we  estimate  the  wounded  and  the 
ruined  in  health  on  both  sides,  at  22,000.  For  scarcely  a 
public  print  came  to  hand  that  did  not  record  the  ghastly 
return  of  the  once  robust  young  man,  the  horrid  apparition 
of  gaunt,  and  maimed,  and  cadaverous  forms,  that  were  once 
called  fathers,  or  brothers,  or  sons.  A  returned  volunteer 
at  Brighton,  Mass.,  could  not  make  for  a  long  time  his  own 
mother  know  him,  as  his  appearance  was  so  much  changed, 
and  he  had  lost  his  voice.  He  came  home  but  to  rest  his 
anguished  head  on  her  bosom,  and  die. 

The  reasons  have  already  been  given  why  such  ravages 
were  made  by  disease  ;  but  the  number  of  Americans 


116  THE    HOSPITAL    AND    THE    BATTLE-FIELD. 

wounded  in  the  battles,  who  survived  to  return  home,  was 
less  than  in  most  wars ;  first,  because  the  barbarity  of  the 
Mexican  troops  instigated  them  often  to  kill  the  prostrate 
foe  when  opportunity  offered  ;  then,  because  the  slightly 
wounded  in  that  hot  climate,  were  often  snatched  away  by 
the  intervention  of  some  disease ;  and,  finally,  because  the 
distance  was  so  great  home,  both  by  land  and  sea,  that  many 
perished  in  the  act  of  removal.  The  forces  of  the  United 
States  had  not  time  to  be  acclimated ;  and  at  the  very 
period  when  that  process  was  in  its  most  critical  stage,  they 
were  hurried  on  with  all  the  daring  impetuosity  of  the 
American  character,  from  march  to  march,  and  from  battle 
to  battle,  travelling  in  some  instances  on  foot  forty  miles  in 
a  day.  Col.  Baker,  of  the  Illinois  volunteers,  and  also  a 
member  of  Congress,  stated  in  his  place  in  the  House,  during 
the  session  of  1846-7,  that  "of  2,400  Ohioans  AV!IO  left 
Cincinnati  in  June,  1846,  900  are  no  longer  in  their  regi 
ments, — dead,  or  with  ruined  constitutions.  The  number 
of  dead,  dying,  or  lost,  will  make  about  the  proportion  of 
forty  per  cent  in  one  year.  Out  of  18,000  volunteers  of 
June  and  July,  1846,  7,000  are  already  dead  or  gone." 
There  were  at  one  time  in  a  single  hospital  in  New  Orleans, 
680  of  the  returned  volunteers  sick. 

In  attempting  to  form  any  adequate  idea  of  the  sufferings 
of  the  sick  and  wounded  in  hospitals,  we  must  consider  that 
they  are  away  from  home,  and  often  home-sick ;  that  they 
are  in  general  nursed,  if  nursed  at  all,  not  by  the  natural 
kindred  of  home  and  neighborhood,  or  by  the  tender  hand 
of  woman,  but  by  strangers  and  men,  and,  perhaps,  foreign 
ers,  who  were  often  indeed  more  kind  than  their  own 
people  ;  that  medicines  are  often  wanting ;  delicacies  that 
win  a  sick  appetite  are  unknown  ;  ill-conditioned  and  unven- 
tilated  rooms,  poor  furniture,  bedding,  and  changes  of  gar 
ments,  and  the  lack  of  the  indescribable  atmosphere  of  home ; 
uneducated  and  inexperienced  physicians  and  surgeons,  ac- 


THE   HOSPITAL    AND    THE    BATTLE-FIELD.  117 

cording  to  the  testimony  of  high  official  authority ;  the  as 
semblage  together  of  large  numbers  of  the  sick  and  wound 
ed,  with  all  their  groans,  insanity,  loathsomeness,  contagion, 
and  scenes  of  death,  in  large  apartments  ;  the  morbid  imagin 
ation  generated  and  aggravated  by  such  environments  of 
discomfort  and  danger.  When  we  have  summoned  up  these 
and  similar  circumstances  of  the  war-hospital,  we  wonder 
not  that  death  resorts  thither  as  to  the  chosen  hall  of  his 
revelry,  and  the  inscription  seen  by  Dante,  in  his  awful 
vision,  might  well  be  supposed  to  be  written  over  the  door, 

"  No  hope  to  those  that  enter  here." 

A  writer,  speaking  of  a  large  number  of  discharged  volun 
teers  sent  home  by  the  ship  "Virginia,"  and  dating  his 
letter  Nov.  13,  1846,  Balize,  La.,  says,  "Half  these  were 
wounded  or  sick,  some  having  lost  their  legs,  others  their 
arms,  others  being  wounded  in  their  arms  and  legs.  Will 
you  believe  me  when  I  tell  you  that  with  all  these  sick  and 
wounded,  and  dying  men,  not  a  surgeon  or  nurse  was  sent 
along  to  attend  upon  them,  not  a  particle  of  medicine  fur 
nished,  not  a  patch  of  linen  for  dressing  wounds  ?  Such  is 
the  truth,  and  such,  I  understand,  is  the  usual  manner  in 
which  the  men  who  have  been  out  to  fight  our  battles,  but 
who  are  unfortunate  enough  to  get  wounded  or  become  sick, 
are  sent  home,  like  old  horses  turned  out  to  die." 

The  testimony  of  another  eye-witness  is  as  follows, — and 
we  should  bear  it  in  mind  that  most  American  writers  and 
correspondents  who  went  into  Mexico,  were  advocates,  de 
fenders,  or  at  least  palliators  of  the  Avar: — "I  left  our  sick 
at  Matamoras  yesterday.  It  makes  one's  heart  bleed  to 
witness  the  sufferings  of  these  poor  fellows.  In  camp,  you 
must  know,  few  of  the  conveniences  considered  necessary 
to  the  ill  at  home,  can  be  had.  A  man  gets  sick,  and  he  is 
carried  to  the  hospital  with  his  blanket  and  his  knapsack. 


118  THE    HOSPITAL    AND    THE    BATTLE-FIELD. 

Bed  and  bedding  there  are  none,  -and  as  the  country  is 
destitute  of  lumber,  bedsteads  are  not  to  be  had.  A  blanket 
and  the  ground  is,  therefore,  the  couch  upon  which  the 
volunteer  lies  sick,  and  dies,  if  he  does  not  recover.  If  he 
dies,  the  same  blanket  forms  his  winding-sheet  and  coffin, — 
plank  is  not  to  be  had." 

A  shell  from  one  of  Gen.  Scott's  batteries  struck  the 
Charity  Hospital  at  Vera  Cruz,  in  the  siege  of  that  city, 
penetrated  the  roof,  bursting  in  the  room  where  the  sick 
inmates  were  lying,  and  killed  twenty-three. 

At  the  siege  of  Puebla,  the  less  severely  sick  and  wound 
ed  of  the  hospital  were  obliged  to  take  an  active  part  in 
protecting  the  American  quarters ;  and  the  list  of  the  phy 
sician  and  surgeon  numbered,  according  to  the  report  of 
Col.  Childs,  1,800. 

A  young  soldier  writes  to  The  Pltiladdplria  Inquirer,  from 
Perote,  in  November,  1847,  "Oh,  the  misery  of  this  hos 
pital  life,  who  would  believe  it ! 

"  Imagination  cannot  picture  to  you  a  military  hospital. 
It  cannot  be  given  to  you  on  paper.  Tall,  bony  skeletons, 
torn  and  racked  by  disease,  struggling  to  make  a  step,  totter 
ing  along  like  Hamlet's  ghost!  A  year  ago  they  were 
among  friends  smiling  upon  them.  Here  they  are  sick  and 
dying  in  this  Lazar-house  of  slaves,  once  freemen !  See 
there !  keep  back,  and  let  that  once  manly,  now  decrepit 
form  pass  between  the  arch.  His  assistants  can  hardly  sup 
port  him.  That  arch  he  is  passing  for  the  last  time.  To 
morrow  sees  him  borne  along  on  the  barrow.  He  looks 
around,  the  tear  glistening  in  his  eye,  but,  his  manly  spirit 
yet  unsubdued,  brushes  it  away.  That  deep  sigh  proclaims 
all  hope  fled.  His  shattered  mind  dwells  on  by-gone  days. 
He  raises  his  t  sunken  eyes  to  heaven,  and  mutters  all  his 
earthly  joys,  —  Home,  —  Father,  —  Mother  !  Others,  in 
idiocy  or  raving  lunacy,  sink  into  the  slumbers  of  death. 
Others,  with  the  loss  of  a  leg  or  an  arm,  or  perhaps  both, 


THE    HOSPITAL    AND    THE    BATTLE-FIELD.  119 

are  still  thankful  that  they  have  life.  And  there  are  no 
charms  or  enjoyment  to  make  them  feel  their  loss.  Fame, 
glory,  ambition,  have  brought  many  here,  but  I  assure  you 
that  bane  of  society,  rum,  has  had  a  large  share  in  the 
business ;  many,  many  have  told  me  so. 

"These  few  disconnected  lines  may  serve  to  give  you 
Foind*  idea  of  the  state  of  things  here,  but  my  powers  of 
description  are  not  sufficient  to  show  up  the  realities  of 
every-day  life.  Were  I  an  Irving,  I  could  picture  scenes 
that  would  distress  you,  but  which  I  hope  none  will  ever 
see  again. — It  is  a  noted  fact,  that  many  who  die  here,  have 
their  fate  hastened,  if  not  caused,  by  thinking  and  griev 
ing  about  home.  And  all  this  for  Fame.  I  think  she  will 
break  her  trumpet  ere  she  can  honestly  sound  the  glories  of 
the  Hospital!" 

A  soldier  from  Maine  stated  that  he  was  allowed  by  the 
Government  twenty  cents  per  day  for  his  support  from  New 
Orleans  home.  The  Volunteers  from  Massachusetts  were 
subsisted  home  from  the  same  place  at  about  the  rate  of 
one  cent  per  mile, — many  sick  and  suffering !  Said  a 
Western  editor,  "we  spent  some  hours  in  conversation  with 
those  poor  fellows,  endeavoring  to  understand  the  meaning 
of  such  overwhelming  squalor,  want  and  misery;  for  we  do 
not  exaggerate  when  we  say,  that  we  never  beheld  its 
parallel  except  at  the  Irish  emigrant  sheds  in  Canada  last 
summer.  The  condition  of  these  poor  creatures  was  out 
rageously  offensive  to  every  human  sense,  as  well  physical 
as  moral.'"  Said  another  editor,  "  Private  Avery  died 
yesterday  ;  and  the  sick  receive  no  attention,  except  those 
who  are  so  fortunate  as  to  have  friends  who  visit  them. 
All  are  broken;  many  are  destitute;  and  individual  charity 
and  friendship  constitute  the  only  succor  which  has  yet  been 
bestowed  upon  those  who  have  found  relief." 

But  not  to  make  these  details  of  wretchedness  tedious,  let 
us  pause  a  moment  before  we  conclude,  and  contemplate 


120  THE    HOSPITAL    AND    THE   BATTLE-FIELD. 

this  tremendous  spectacle  of  death,  sudden  or  lingering, 
in  war.  What  but  the  voice,  at  which  the  dead  themselves 
shall  live,  has  potency  enough,  or  can  plead  trumpet- 
tongued  against  the  deep  damnation  of  such  a  taking  off  of 
thousands  of  our  fellow-men  ?  Life,  as  well  as  property, 
is  a  great  trust  from  the  Creator,  to  be  held,  preserved  and 
employed,  according  to  the  will  of  the  principal.  We  have 
no  right  to  lay  violent  hands  on  it  ourselves,  nor  to  suffer, 
if  we  can  prevent  it,  and  keep  a  clear  conscience,  any  other 
man  to  do  it  harm  or  hazard.  Moses  proclaimed  from 
Mount  Sinai,  Jesus  from  Mount  Zion,  "  Thou  shalt  not 
kill."  It  is  the  law  of  the  moral  and  social  world,  and  it  can 
not  he  openly,  frequently,  and  flagrantly  broken,  as  is  done 
in  war  without  involving  one  or  both  the  parties  concerned 
in  a  most  solemn  responsibility,  both  to  God  and  man.  We 
are  pained  even  at  the  sight  of  an  animal  killed ;  what  should 
be  our  horror  then  at  the  contemplation  of  a  battle  where 
men  meet  in  vast  numbers  with  all  the  skilful  enginery 
of  destruction,  for  the  express  aim  of  setting  this  law  of 
God  at  the  utmost  defiance,  and  imbruing  one  another's 
hands  in  the  blood  of  children  of  the  same  Heavenly 
Father,  and  disciples  of  the  same  Saviour !  The  following 
is  from  an  actor  in  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista  :  "  The  morn 
ing  of  the  23d  came.  The  fight  was  renewed,  and  soon 
the  battle  became  general.  The  hissing  shot  swept  like  a 
hurricane  through  the  serried  ranks,  opening  huge  gaps, 
instantly  to  be  closed  by  fresh  victims  ;  the  shell,  with  its 
fearful  surging  noise,  flew  over  the  plain,  leaving  a  blue 
streak  behind,  and  after  cutting  down  several,  would  burst, 
its  fragments  disemboweling  and  tearing  off  heads  and  arms 
alike  ;  the  flesh  would  be  rent  from  a  soldier's  body  and 
hurled  in  a  million  shreds,  into  the  face  of  his  comrade,  who 
would  shrink  as  if  struck  by  the  ball  itself.  Brains,  and 
bones,  and  blood  flew  in  the  air  over  a  fighting  line 
like  drops  of  water  lashed  from  its  current  by  a  falling  tree. 


THE    HOSPITAL    AND    THE    BATTLE-FIELD.  121 

Here  the  opposing  forces  stood  in  speaking  distance,  and 
pkeously  poured  a  wasting  fire  into  one  another's  breasts  ; 
there  the  work  was  hotter  and  deadlier,  and  as  the  column 
surged  forward  and  back,  the  thrust  of  the  bayonet  was  to 
decide  the  victory.  In  a  few  instances,  men  threw  down  their 
^ii us,  and  grappling  the  hair  or  throat,  plunged  their  long 
knives  into  their  enemy,  and  maybe,  while  the  reeking  blade 
wu-  raised  for  a  second  blow,  the  strong  and  blood-dyed  arm 
fell  lifeless.  A  man  would  rise  from  the  close  embrace  of  the 
death-struggle,  and,  ere  he  was  erect,  a  sabre  stroke  had 
cleaved  his  skull  and  crushed  through  his  face.  In  the  rear 
and  on  the  flanks,  heavy  squadrons  of  cavalry  hung, 
and  flew  in  thundering  gallop,  eager  to  detect  some  assaila 
ble  point,  that  they  might  trample  to  death  a  broken  line. 
Oh !  it  was  a  cruel  and  heart-sickening  sight  to  look  upon 
that  dense  impassioned  mass  of  men  rioting  in  blood  and 
carnage  like  demons." 

It  is  the  unspeakable  aggravation  of  the  loss  of  life  in 
war,  as  compared  with  the  mortality  of  a  famine,  or  a  dis 
ease,  that  it  is  man  killing  man,  brother  lifting  up  sword 
against  brother,  and  repeating  the  example  of  Cain,  in  each 
one  of  a  hundred  or  a  thousand  legalized  murders.  The 
chief  evil  of  war  is  its  sinfulness,  its  unholy  motives, 
its  fiendish  passions,  its  repeal  of  every  thing  good,  and 
its  encouragement  of  all  the  worst  feelings  and  desires  of 
the  carnal  man.  Its  battles,  fought  on  the  shores  of 
time,  send  their  hellish  influences  through  eternity.  Ac 
cording  to  the  ingenious  mathematical  demonstration  of 
a  great  Natural  Philosopher  of  the  present  day,  whatever 
sound  is  made,  goes  on  and  on  resounding  and  rever 
berating  in  never-ending  echoes; — the  shriek  of  the 
murdered,  "  the  confused  noise  of  the  warriors,"  rolling  for 
ever  through  the  universe,  and  repeated  to  the  last  syllable 
of  time.  This  is  a  faint  image  of  the  everlasting  evils  that 
will  follow  on  earth  and  in  futurity,  the  convulsion?  of  war. 

11 


122  LEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES    OF    THE    WAR, 

The  loss  of  life  in  this  manner  is  attended,  also,  with  the 
two-fold  painful  feeling,  that  many  who  perish  are  not  can 
didates  for  this  change  in  the  ordinary  course  of  nature, 
but  that  they  are  often  the  young,  the  vigorous,  and  the 
enterprising  ;  fathers,  sons,  brothers,  who  can  ill  be  spared 
from  the  sphere  of  active  life.  War  feeds  on  some  of  the 
most  active  of  our  race.  But,  a  yet  more  affecting  idea  to 
the  Christian  and  moralist  associated  with  this  mode  of 
death,  is  that  it  takes  place  oftentimes  not  only  in  the  ab 
sence  of  all  suitable  preparation,  but  in  a  state  of  the  most 
extreme  disqualification  and  violent  nnntness  ; — the  soul 
agitated  with  the  most  tumultuous,  if  not  the  most  diabolical 
passions;  the  weapons  of  death  clenched  in  the  grasp  of 
a  dreadful  resolution,  "the  human  face  divine"  lighted  up 
with  the  fires  of  ambition  or  revenge,  the  eye  kindling  with 
exultation  at  seeing  a  brother  fall,  and  the  word  of  impiety 
and  undying  hate  still  trembling  on  the  lips.  What  a  state 
in  which  to  bid  adieu  to  this  solemn  life  of  earth,  and  to 
enter  on  the  more  solemn  scenes  of  an  eternal  world  1 


CHAPTER   XI. 

LEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES    OF    THE    WAR. 

"  Were  not  the  mercies  of  God  infinite,  it  were  in  vain  for  those  of 
the  military  profession  to  hope  for  any  portion  of  them,  seeing  the 
cruelties  by  them  permitted  and  perpetrated  are  also  infinite."  — 
MOULUC,  MARSHAL  OF  FKANCE. 

WAR,  in  its  nature,  is  a  barbarism.  It  implies  a  return 
to  the  brute  force,  that  governs  men  in  the  savage  «tate. 


LEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES    OP    THE    WAR.  123 

It  is  a  substitution  of  might  for  right.  The  parties  do  not 
rest  the  strength  of  their  cause  upon  the  weight  of  their 
arguments,  but  the  calibre  of  their  cannon.  Since  the 
whole  system  combines  physical  violence,  in  all  its  varieties 
and  most  shocking  displays,  we  must  expect  to  find,  in  each 
separate  act  and  scene,  the  marks  of  its  atrocities  and  cruel 
ties.  Every  battle,  from  the  necessity  of  the  case,  must  be 
a  reign  of  the  Furies.  Every  camp  must  be  a  school  of 
abominations.  Every  march,  though  "  the  land  is  as  the 
garden  of  Eden  before,"  must  leave  "  behind  it  a  desolate 
wilderness."  * 

These  are  natural  and  necessary  results.  We  cannot 
wound  and  kill  men  without  hurting  them.  War  is  the  god 
of  cruelty.  It  is  the  embodiment  of  inhumanity.  It  cannot 
be  carried  on,  for  a  single  day,  upon  Christian  principles. 
It  militates  against  every  social  precept  of  the  Gospel.  Its 
aim  is  not  to  love,  but  to  hate  our  enemies ;  to  do  them  evil, 
not  good ;  to  destroy  men's  lives,  not  to  save  them ;  to  re 
turn  not  good  for  evil,  but  evil  for  evil,  a  greater  evil  for  a 
less  evil,  or  even  evil  for  good ;  to  curse,  not  bless  our  ene 
mies  ;  to  see  how  far  it  can  make  mankind,  not  the  children 
of  "  the  Highest,  who  is  kind  unto  the  unthankful  and  to 
the  evil,"  but  the  children  of  "  him  who  was  a  murderer  from 
the  beginning." 

In  bringing,  therefore,  the  Mexican  War  before  the  bar 
of  public  opinion  and  the  religion  of  Christ,  we  shall  expect 
to  find  it,  like  all  other  wars,  a  system  of  barbarities,  —  a 
reversal  of  civilization  and  Christianity.  Though  carried 
on  between  two  nominally  Christian  nations,  and  with  loud 
professions,  at  its  outset,  of  humanity,  we  shall  soon  discover, 
by  the  testimony  of  unimpeachable  witnesses,  that  it  is  the 
same  old  "  trade  of  barbarism,"  as  Napoleon  called  war ; 
and  that,  while  it  was  a  contest  not  particularly  embittered 

*  Joel  2 :  3. 


124  LEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES    OF   THE    WAR. 

by  religious  animosities,  though  fought  between  a  Catholic 
and  a  Protestant  power,  and  while  its  period  was  the  nine 
teenth  century  of  the  era  of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  the  boasted 
age  of  intelligence,  science,  refinement,  and  philanthropy, 
yet  that  its  outrages  and  horrors  are  equal  to  those  of  any 
war,  of  any  age,  in  proportion  to  its  duration  and  the  num 
ber  of  its  combatants.  Its  evils,  in  other  respects,  have 
fitly  corresponded  to  its  amazing  waste  of  treasure  and 
life. 

There  are,  in  the  first  place,  what  may  be  called  the 
legitimate  and  inevitable  horrors  of  the  battle,  the  siege,  the 
camp,  and  the  hospital.  These  we  have  already  adverted 
to;  but  they  deserve  a  more  emphatic  consideration,  that 
our  readers  may  realize,  in  some  measure,  what  a  war  is, 
and  for  what  kind  of  a  thing  they  vote  or  speak,  when  they 
advocate  a  war.  Then  there  are  what  may  be  called  the 
illegitimate  barbarities  ;  those  which  military  men  themselves 
condemn,  and  which,  even  they  feel,  dim  the  beauty  of  their 
great  idol,  the  glory  of  arms,  and  wither  the  laurels  of  the 
victor.  To  the  examination  of  the  evidence,  on  both  these 
points,  we  will  now  direct  our  attention ;  and,  if  testimony 
summoned  from  these  fields  of  blood  possess  any  credibility, 
—  if  language  convey  any  meaning,  —  and  if  the  human 
heart  be  alive  to  human  pains  and  sins,  —  we  must  feel  that 
we  stand  in  the  presence  of  calamities  that  ought  not  to  be 
allowed  to  drop  into  oblivion,  without  giving  us  their  most 
solemn  lessons  of  peace,  and  admonitions  against  war. 

Here,  also,  let  it  be  remarked,  that  we  have,  in  these 
accounts,  a  more  unbiassed  description  of  war,  as  it  is,  than 
can  often  be  obtained,  from  the  fact,  that  those  "who  went 
into  it  were,  for  the  most  part,  not  hardened  and  professional 
soldiers,  but  men  fresh  from  peaceful  pursuits,  and,  in  not  a 
few  cases,  ardent  patriots  and  worthy  citizens,  though  they 
might  not,  to  use  the  Western  phrase,  stop  "  to  see  whether 
they  were  right/'  before  they  "went  ahead.*'  The  letter 


LEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES    OF    THE    WAR.  125 

writers,  too,  were  generally  spectators,  rather  than  actors,  in 
the  scenes  they  portray.  The  two  leading  generals,  whose 
reports  we  shall  quote,  were  also  humane  and  kindly-hearted 
men,  so  far  as  the  profession  of  arms  will  allow.  We  have, 
therefore,  a  fair  chance  to  know  something  of  the  real  char 
acter  of  war,  from  the  declarations  of  those  whose  bosoms 
had  not  become  wholly  steeled  to  its  miseries. 

Palo  Alto  and  Kesaca  de  la  Palma.  A  correspondent  of  the 
Boston  Courier,  says  :  "  That  night  was  to  me  a  terrible 
one,  which  I  shall  never,  never  forget.  The  screams  and 
groans  of  the  wounded  and  dying  on  both  sides,  mangled 
and  torn  as  they  all  were,  with  the  grape  and  six-pounder 
shots  —  the  .conflagration  of  the  battle-ground,  fit  emblem  of 
the  awful  work  of  death  which  had  so  long  been  going  on, — 
the  moans  of  the  poor  oxen  and  horses,  so  terribly  mangled, 
—  and  the  dreadful  uncertainty  of  the  extent  of  our  loss, 
and  how  many  of  our  friends,  who  were  alive  at  dinner, 
were  then  asleep  forever,  —  the  night-work  of  our  surgeons, 
with  their  horrible  instruments  all  besmeared  with  human 
blood,  —  were  sights,  and  sounds,  and  thoughts,  I  pray  God, 
in  his  mercy,  may  never  visit  me  again." 

An  officer  of  the  army  writes  from  Matamoras,  May  23, 
1846  :  "  I  went  over  the  field,  after  the  battle  of  Resaca  de 
la  Palma ;  and  thte  sight  which  met  my  eye  there  was  one 
which  imagination  can  scarcely  depict.  Bodies  of  Mexican 
soldiers  were  lying  about  in  every  direction ;  some  with 
their  heads  entirely  or  partly  shot  off,  others  without  legs  or 
arms,  others  with  their  entrails  torn  out.  One  man,  a  fine- 
looking  fellow,  was  lying  on  the  ground,  with  a  cartridge  in 
his  fingers  ;  having  evidently  been  killed  while  in  the  act  of 
priming  his  musket.  I  crept  about  on  my  hands  and  knees 
through  the  chapparal,  and  at  every  few  paces  I  would 
come  across  dead  bodies  ;  and,  at  one  spot,  I  discovered  the 
body  of  a  beautiful  Mexican  girl,  staked  through  the 
heart." 

11* 


126  LEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES    OF    THE    WAR. 

"  Go  where  you  would,"  says  T.  B.  Thorpe,  in  "  Our 
Army  on  the  Rio  Grande,"  "  and  there  were  evidences  of 
the  artillery.  Ringgold  had  written  the  strength  of  '  his 
arm '  with  terrible  distinctiveness.  Arms  and  legs  gone, 
shattered  bodies,  ghastly  wounds,  all  too  hideous  for  the 
musket,  were  everywhere  to  be  seen.  It  was  surprising 
that  men  could  live,  thus  torn  to  pieces.  And  yet  the  great 
est  suffering,  apparently,  was  from  a  musket  ball.  Had  it 
been  grape,  or  of  heavier  material,  it  would  have  done  its 
work  effectually,  and  left  its  victim  painless  in  death.  As 
it  was,  it  had  gone  through  the  breast,  tearing  the  fine 
machinery  of  the  lungs  to  pieces,  and  yet  left  vitality  enough 
to  have  them  move  on  in  their  ruins,  poisoning  the  whole 
frame  with  impure  blood,  and  leaving  the  patient  to  suffer 
beyond  the  power  of  imagination  to  conceive.  Poor  sol 
dier  !  His  breath  rattled  and  tore  away  at  his  vitals  ;  his 
sufferings  were,  indeed,  a  dark  spot  on  the  bloody  page  of 
war." 

He  also  describes  the  awful  scenes  at  the  Rio  Grande, 
during  the  retreat  and  crossing  of  the  Mexicans,  and  the 
confusion  at  the  city  of  Matamoras  :  "  The  water  was  cov 
ered  with  the  miserable  beings,  who,  confused  and  despe 
rate,  plunged  about  in  the  waves,  culling  on  God  to  help 
them,  or  venting  their  impotent  maledictions  upon  those  who 
had  forced  them  to  a  watery  grave.  They  sunk  by  scores, 
clutching  each  other  in  the  agonies  of  death  ;  and  the  "  mad 
river"  fairly  boiled,  with  the  expiring  breath  of  those  who 
had  sunken  under  its  dark  waves ! 

"  In  the  midst  of  the  panic,  Father  Leary  arrived  at  the 
bank,  and  by  his  presence  restored  order,  in  a  certain  de 
gree,  among  the  fugitives.  He  took  his  place  on  the  Hut, 
already  crowded  with  troops.  It  was  about  shoving  off, 
when  down  the  bank  swept  a  flying  column  of  cavalry. 
Goaded  by  their  riders,  the  steeds  madly  leaped  into  the 
boats  ;  crushing  to  death  scores  of  their  victims,  and  driving 


LEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES    OP    THE    WAR.  127 

the  remainder  into  the  river.  The  holy  father  raised  his 
crucifix  above  his  head,  muttered 'an  ejaculatory  prayer,  and 
disappeared,  with  the  mass  of  his  fellow-beings,  under  the 
waves. 

"  Nothing  could  exceed  the  consternation  that  Deigned  in 
Matamoras,  on  the  night  of  the  9th.  Between  4,000  and 
5,000  lawless  soldiers  were  wandering,  panic-struck,  about 
the  streets.  *  *  * 

"  The  night  was  made  hideous,  by  the  constant  arrival  of 
the  wounded,  in  sacks  ;  many  yelled  like  fiends,  as  the 
rough  carriage  and  contracted  form  started  afresh  their 
bleeding  wounds  ;  others  were  found  dead  in  their  sacks, 
having  been  drowned  while  crossing  the  river  on  swimming 
mules.  *  *  * 

"  The  more  substantial  citizens  hurriedly  gathered  to 
gether  their  effects,  and  fled  into  the  country;  many  of 
these  fell  by  the  hands  of  unorganized  troops,  and  their 
property  was  divided  among  the  murderers.  Hundreds  of 
soldiers  were  scattered  over  the  country,  who  pillaged  all 
within  their  reach,  and  attacked  the  defenceless  that  came 
in  their  way.  Social,  civil,  and  military  order  was  scattered 
to  the  winds ;  dark  crime  and  unbridled  passion  rioted  in 
the  terrible  confusion  that  followed  this  terrible  defeat. 

Monterey.  The  attack  on  this  place  had  the  character  of 
a  battle,  a  siege,  and  an  assault,  and  combined  the  horrors 
of  all.  Let  us  call  the  witnesses,  remembering  that  they 
are  war-men,  and  observing  that  their  stories  have  internal 
marks  of  genuineness  and  authenticity. 

Young  Wynkoop,  of  Zanesville,  Ohio,  writes,  "  During 
the  fight  of  the  second  day,  a  flag  of  cessation  was  sent  to 
the  Mexicans,  requesting  a  few  hours  to  bury  the  dead 
which  were  strewed  in  frightful  piles  over  the  field.  This 
was  refused,  and  the  wounded  and  dead  lay  where  they  fell, 
beneath  the  rays  of  a  scorching  sun  till  the  battle  was  ended. 
It  was  then  almost  impossible  for  our  men  to  endure  the 


128  JLEGITI3IATE    BARBARITIES    OF    THE    WAR. 

stench,  while  they  heaped  dirt  over  the  poor  fellows  where 
they  lay.  The  bodies  of  the  dead  were  as  black  as  coals. 
Many  of  them  were  stripped  of  their  clothing  by  the  Mex 
icans  during  the  night.  Several  of  those  who  were  wounded 
during  the  first  day's  fight,  crawled  into  ditches  and  holes  to 
avoid  the  balls  which  were  rolling  like  hailstones  over  the 
field,  whence,  exhausted  by  the  loss  of  blood,  they  were 
unable  to  crawl,  or  give  signs  of  distress.  As  a  consequence, 
many  perished,  though  some  who  were  found  in  this  con 
dition  were  removed,  and  are  recovering. 

"  I  am  satisfied  with  glory,  if  it  is  to  be  obtained  only  by 
butchering  my  fellow-men;  and  I  wish  some  of  our  valorous 
friends  at  the  North  could  see  a  little  more  of  the  realities 
of  war,  and  they  would  not  be  so  anxious  to  rush  into  one 
on  every  trivial  occasion.  It  makes  me  sick  now,  when 
I  think  of  the  scenes  I  witnessed.  They  were  perfectly 
horrid.  On  the  night  of  the  23d,  as  our  shells  exploded  in 
the  city,  they  were  followed  by  the  most  terrific  cries,  per 
haps  from  icomen  and  children,  which  did  not  cease  till 
morning.  Thank  God  !  I  only  threw  two  shells  that  night, 
on  account  of  being  told  the  Texans  were  on  the  roofs  of 
the  houses  immediately  in  my  line  of  fire,  and  as  I  was 
about  to  open  in  the  morning  upon  the  principal  plaza,  which 
was  filled  with  four  thousand  troops,  I  was  stopped  by  the 
appearance  of  a  flag  of  truce,  and  the  result  was  the  capitu 
lation  of  the  city,  and  a  suspension  of  arms  for  two  months, 
which  I  hope  may  terminate  in  a  general  peace,  and  that  we 
may  be  permitted  again  to  see  our  families." 

But  what  heart,  though  it  be  of  stone,  is  not  pierced  and 
thrilled  with  the  following  tragedy  of  real  life!  To  think 
that  an  humble,  disinterested  heroine  like  this  woman  should 
perish  in  her  work  of  humanity  !  Hers  was  the  true  glory. 
The  warrior's  fame  is  a  sham  and  a  cheat.  She  shall  live  in 
the  eternal  memory  of  history.  TVe  may  say,  without  ir 
reverence,  of  her.  as  was  said  of  the  woman  of  the  new  Tcs- 


LEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES    OF    THE    WAR,  129 

tament,  that  wheresoever  this  battle  shall  be  spoken  of  "  in 
the  whole  world,  there  shall  also  this,  that  this  woman  hath 
done  be  told  for  a  memorial  of  her." 

The  following  is  an  extract  of  a  letter  addressed  to  the 
"Louisville  Courier"  dated  Monterey,  Oct.  17,  1847:  — 
<;  While  I  was  stationed  with  our  left  wing  in  one  of  the 
ibrts,  on  the  evening  of  the  21st,  I  saw  a  Mexican  woman 
busily  engaged  in  carrying  bread  and  water  to  the  wounded 
men  of  both  armies.  I  saw  the  ministering  angel  raise  the 
head  of  a  wounded  man,  give  him  water  and  food,  and  then 
bind  up  his  ghastly  wound  with  a  handkerchief  she  took 
from  her  own  head.  After  having  exhausted  her  supplies, 
she  went  back  to  her  house  to  get  more  bread  and  water  for 
others.  As  she  was  returning  on  her  mission  of  mercy,  to 
comfort  other  wounded  persons,  I  heard  the  report  of  a  gun, 
and  saw  the  poor  innocent  creature  fall  dead !  I  think  it 
was  an  accidental  shot  that  struck  her.  I  would  not  be 
willing  to  believe  otherwi-e.  It  made  me  sick  at  heart,  and, 
turning  from  the  scene,  I  involuntarily  raised  my  eyes  to 
ward  heaven,  and  thought,  Great  God  !  is  this  war?  Pass 
ing  the  spot  the  next  day,  I  saw  her  body  still  lying  there, 
with  the  bread  by  her  side,  and  the  broken  gourd,  with  a 
lew  drops  of  water  still  in  it,  —  emblems  of  her  errand.  AVe 
buried  her,  and  while  we  were  digging  her  grave,  cannon 
balls  flew  around  us  like  hail." 

Bi'.cna  1'i'sta,  "At  one  time  during  the  fight,"  says  an 
eye-witness,  writing  from  Saltillo,  "we  returned  over  the 
ground  on  which  we  made  our  first  charge.  We  there  saw 
the  mangled  bodies  of  our  fallen  comrades,  and,  although 
animated  by  the  excitement  of  the  fierce  contest  which  was 
just  then  renewed,  yet  I  think  there  was  not  a  heart  among 
us  which  did  not  for  a  moment  cease  to  beat  on  beholding 
that  horrible  scene.  But  for  his  straw  hat.  and  a  few  other, 
articles  of  clothing  which  the  ruffians  had  left  on  him,  I 
should  have  failed  to  recognize  the  body  of  young  Eggleston. 


130  LEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES    OF    THE    WAB. 

He  was  shot,  stabbed,  and  otherwise  abused.  This  was, 
indeed,  the  fate  of  all  whom  I  saw.  Lieut.  Moore,  and  a 
man  named  Couch,  of  our  company,  were  the  only  persons 
whose  bodies  I  easily  recognized. 

"After  the  battle,  I  rode  over  the  whole  field.  Parties 
were  engaged  in  burying  the  dead  ;  but  still  there  were 
hundreds  of  bodies  lying  stiff  and  cold,  with  no  covering 
save  the  scanty  remnant  of  clothing  which  the  robbers  of 
the  dead  found  too  valueless  to  take  from  them.  I  saw  the 
human  body  pierced  in  every  place.  I  saw  expressed  in  the 
faces  of  the  dead  almost  every  expression  and  feeling.  Some 
seemed  to  have  died  defending  their  lives  bravely  to  the  last. 
Some  seemed  to  have  died  execrating  their  enemies,  and 
cursing  them  with  their  last  breath ;  others  had  the  most 
placid  and  resigned  expression  and  feeling  ;  while  others 
evidently  used  their  last  words  in  supplicating  for  mercy. 
Here  lay  youth  and  mature  age  calmly  reposing  in  untimely 
death. 

"Among  the  hundreds  of  the  dead  whom  I  saw  there, 
I  was  much  touched  by  the  appearance  of  the  corpse  of  a 
Mexican  boy,  whose  age,  I  should  think,  could  not  have 
exceeded  fifteen  years.  A  bullet  had  struck  him  full 
through  the  breast,  and  must  have  occasioned  almost  in 
stant  death.  He  was  lying  on  his  back,  his  face  slightly 
inclined  to  one  side,  and  although  cold,  yet  beaming  with  a 
bright  and  sunny  smile,  which  eloquently  told  the  specta 
tor  that  he  had  fallen  with  his  face  to  his  country's  foe. 

"  Saltillo  is  one  vast  hospital.  Besides  our  own  wounded 
(four  or  five  hundred  in  number),  Gen.  Taylor  lias  collected 
all  the  wounded  Mexicans  who  were  left  by  their  army, 
and  put  them  in  hospital.  It  is  most  disgusting  to  visit  one 
of  these  places.  All  the  Mexicans  are  badly  wounded ;  for 
those  who  were  slightly  wounded  went  off.  They  are  dying 
every  hour  in  the  day." 

Says  Capt.  Carlton,  in  his  work  called  "  The  Battle  of 


LEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES    OF    THE    WAR.  131 

Bucna  Vista," — "We  imagined  that  during  the  battle,  and 
upon  the  iield  when  the  conflict  was  ended,  and  afterwards 
upon  the  road  over  which  the  enemy  had  retreated,  we  had 
witnessed  human  suffering  in  its  most  distressing  forms. 
3 Jut  such  was  not  the  case.  The  scene  presented  to  our 
eves  on  entering  within  the  walls  of  Encarnacion,  was  so 
filled  with  extreme  and  utter  agony,  that  we  at  once  ceased 
to  shudder  at  the  remembrance  of  any  misery  we  had  ever 
before  looked  upon.  There  were  300  men  crowded  together 
in  that  wretched  place,  222  of  whom  had  been  wounded  at 
Buena  Vista,  and  brought  thus  far.  There  were  five  officers 
amongst  them.  As  they  had  received  but  little  surgical 
attention,  and  had  been  harassed  and  worn  down  by  tra 
velling  so  far  while  debilitated  with  pain  and  loss  of  blood, 
their  wounds  were  nearly  all  either  gangrened  or  highly 
inflamed.  Many  of  thorn  were  enduring  the  most  excru 
ciating  torments  ;  many  were  delirious  from  excess  of  an 
guish  ;  while  others,  whose  wounds  had  become  mortified, 
were  perfectly  composed,  and  yet  were  even  more  piteous 
to  behold,  as  their  very  quietness  was  but  a  more  certain 
indication  of  speedy  dissolution.  In  fine,  the  whole  hacienda 
presented  at  one  glance  a  picture  of  death,  embracing  all  the 
degrees,  from  the  strong  man  bearing  up  with  fortitude 
against  the  sure  and  speedy  fate  which  awaited  him,  down 
to  the  poor  mortal  struggling  in  the  last  throe  of  existence. 
And  all  intermixed  with  them,  were  the  bodies  of  those  who 
had  just  commenced  the  long  journey,  yet  warm,  and  lying 
in  the  various  positions  they  were  severally  in  when  life 
departed.  Poor  fellows !  No  beloved  eye  had  beamed 
tearfully  upon  them  in  their  last  moments.  No  voice  of 
affection  had  murmured  in  their  ear  little  gentle  words  of 
hope,  or  that  touching  comfort,  "  we  shall  meet  again"  And 
there  was  no  kind  hand  to  honor  their  remains  by  straight 
ening  them  for  the  grave." 

Such  is  war,   Christian  war,  or  war  carried  on  by  one 


132  LEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES    OF    THE    WAR. 

Christian  nation  against  another,  as  described  by  its  colonels, 
captains,  and  soldiers  !  It  is  not  perhaps  in  good  taste  to 
call  up  such  horrid  and  loathsome  images  ;  but  better,  in 
finitely  better  it  is,  that  we  should  have  our  sensibilities 
even  painfully  aroused  to  feel  the  unutterable  horrors  of 
war,  than  that  we  should  ever  by  our  guilty  indifference  or 
unremonstrating  silence  allow  or  encourage  those  causes  to 
go  into  operation,  by  which  all  these  miseries  are  produced, 
or  should  exert  a  direct  and  interested  part  in  bringing  them 
to  pass.  What  indeed  must  be  the  magnitude  and  terror 
of  those  evils  in  their  reality,  when  the  mere  description  of 
them  on  paper  is  so  abhorrent  and  disgusting !  Let  us  be 
willing  to  encounter  a  horrid  image  of  distress  in  our  read 
ing,  if  it  shall  move  us  to  seek  by  all  means  in  our  power 
to  arrest  some  father,  son,  brother,  fellow-man,  from  falling 
into  that  distress  in  actual  life,  or  to  stay  a  nation's  myriad- 
handed  power  from  embarking  in  the  business  of  human 
butchery. 

It  was  in  reference  to  the  action  at  Bucna  Vista  in  par 
ticular,  and  other  battles  in  general,  that  the  highest  mili 
tary,  executive,  and  legislative^authorities  in  the  nation  used 
the  phrases,  —  "  the  grateful  task  of  congratulating  the 
troops  upon  the  brilliant  success  which  attended  their  arms," 
—  "a  great  and  glorious  victory,"  —  "a  success  which  com 
mands  universal  admiration,"  —  "a  glorious  triumph," — • 
"  brilliant  successes,"  —  "  gallant  army,"  —  <•  brilliant  series," 
"  glorious  actions,"  and  many  other  terms  of  a  like  import. 
But  would  it  not  be  more  in  harmony  with  the  dictates  of 
humanity  and  the  Gospel,  and  with  the  proper  feelings  in  a 
free  and  prosperous  nation,  that  this  "  exultation  of  success," 
to  use  the  language  of  the  American  commander-in-chief, 
should  be  "  checked  by  the  heavy  sacrifice  of  life  which  it 
has  cost ;"  and  that  even  if  wars  are  necessary  things,  which 
we  are  not  yet  prepared  to  concede,  the  heart-rending  scenes 
which  are  exhibited  on  its  fields  of  death,  and  in  its  hospitals 


LEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES    OF    THE    WAR.  133 

of  anguish,  should  have  no  such  epithets  as  "great,"  "glo 
rious,"  "gallant,"  "brilliant,"  appended  to  them?  Far  be 
it  from  us  to  undervalue  courage,  patriotism,  and  many  of 
the  qualities  which  the  soldier  may  manifest  in  the  hour  of 
danger,  but  the  spirit  of  glorification  is  not  in  good  taste, 
either  intellectual  or  moral,  in  these  awful  scenes.  Fiends 
in  the  regions  of  woe  may  exult  over  the  fallen  and  the 
lost,  the  sorrowing  and  the  despairing  ;  but  it  is  not  for 
man,  frail,  suffering,  dependent  man,  needing  mercy  himself, 
be  he  king  or  president,  general  or  senator,  to  glory  in  war 
and  the  exploits  of  war;  but  if  necessity  requires  such  in 
conceivable  atrocities  and  agonies,  to  veil  his  face  and  bow 
his  head,  and  pray  for  mercy  on  the  victims,  as  he  would  at 
the  foot  of  the  gallows  supplicate  for  the  malefactor. 

Vcra  Cruz  (True  Cross!).  According  to  the  statements 
of  official  authority,  Gen.  Scott  gave  permission  for  the 
foreign  consuls  and  their  families  to  retire  to  neutral  ships 
in  the  harbor,  or  other  places  of  safety,  and  allotted  time 
before  he  opened  his  cannon  and  completed  his  investment, 
for  all  women  and  children,  and  non-combatants,  who  de 
sired  to  do  so,  to  depart  from  danger  into  the  country.  But 
all  chose  to  take  their  chance  in  the  besieged  and  bombarded 
city.  The  scenes  which  followed, — behold  them! 

The  General-in-chief  writes  to  the  War  Department, 
March  25,  1847,  "All  the  batteries,  Kbs.  1,  2,  3,  4,  and  5, 
are  in  awful  activity  this  morning.  The  effect  is  no  doubt 
very  great,  and  I  think  the  city  cannot  hold  out  beyond  to 
day." 

The  British,  French,  Spanish,  and  Prussian  Consuls,  in 
a  letter  to  Gen.  Scott,  March  24th,  speak  of  "  the  frightful 
results  of  the  bombardment  of  Yera  Cruz  during  yesterday 
and  the  day  before." 

The  following  i>  an  extract  from  the  2u>w  York  Herald: 
— "  The  bombardment  of  four  days  placed  the  town  in  ruins, 
12 


134  LEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES    OF    THE    WAR. 

under  which  great  numbers  of  non-combatants,  men,  women, 
and  children,  were  buried. 

"  The  bombardment  is  represented  to  have  been  terrific, 
and  to  its  thunders  succeeded  the  moans  of  the  dying  in 
every  part  of  the  town  for  several  days  afterwards." 

The  New  Orleans  Commercial  Times  says,  "  A  shell  from 
one  of  our  mortars  passed  through  the  dome  of  one  of  the 
churches,  and  exploded  on  the  altar,  killing  ten  or  fifteen 
women  who  had  gathered  there  for  protection." 

A  correspondent  of  the  Alton  Telegraph,  writing  from 
Vera  Cruz,  says,  "  The  French  families  in  the  city  were  the 
greatest  sufferers.  I  heard  a  great  many  heart-rending  tales 
which  were  told  by  the  survivors  with  breaking  hearts  ;  but 
I  have  neither  the  inclination  nor  the  time  now  to  repeat 
them.  One,  however,  I  will  name.  A  French  family  were 
quietly  seated  in  their  parlor  the  evening  previous  to  the 
hoisting  of  the  white  flag,  when  a  shell  from  one  of  the  mor 
tars  penetrated  the  building,  and  exploded  in  the  room,  kill 
ing  the  mother  and  four  children,  and  wounding  the  residue. 
Another  shell  struck  the  charity  hospital,  penetrated  the 
ropf,  bursting  in  the  room  where  the  sick  inmates  were 
lying,  and  killed  twenty-three.  Thus  rushed  into  eternity, 
in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  not  only  the  invalid,  but  the 
innocent  and  unoffending.  Such  are  a  few  of  the  horrors 
and  fearful  calamities  that  have  marked  the  progress  of  this 
siege  and  capture." 

Sketches  still  more  graphic  and  heart-rending  are  given 
in  the  Advertiser,  Auburn,,N.  Y.,  from  E.  C.  Hine.  "  After 
penetrating  some  distance,"  he  says,  "I  paused  and  looked 
around  me.  Save  our  little  party,  not  an  American  was  to 
be  seen.  We  were  literally  alone  in  an  enemy's  city.  We 
were  the  first  of  our  countrymen  who  had  entered  Vera 
Cruz. 

"  Never  had  I  beheld  such  destruction  of  property. 
Scarcely  a  house  did  I  pass  that  did  not  show  some  great 


LEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES    OF    THE    WAR.  135 

rent  by  the  bursting  of  our  bomb-shells.  At  almost  every 
house  at  which  I  paused  to  examine  the  destruction  occa 
sioned  by  these  dreadful  messengers  of  death,  some  of  the 
family,  if  the  house  did  not  happen  to  be  deserted,  would 
come  to  the  door,  and,  inviting  me  to  enter,  point  out  their 
property  destroyed,  and,  with  a  pitiful  sigh,  exclaim,  La 
lombalia  lomba!  (the  bomb  !  the  bomb  !)  My  heart  ached 
for  the  poor  creatures. 

"  During  my  peregrinations,  I  came  to  a  lofty  and  noble 
mansion,  in  which  a  terrible  bomb-shell  had  exploded,  and 
laid  the  whole  front  of  the  house  in  ruins.  While  I  was 
examining  the  awful  havoc  created,  a  beautiful  girl  of  some 
seventeen  came  to  the  door  and  invited  me  into  the  house. 
She  pointed  to  the  furniture  of  the  mansion  torn  into  frag 
ments,  and  the  piles  of  rubbish  lying  around,  and  informed 
me,  with  her  beautiful  eyes  full  of  tears,  that  the  bomb  had 
destroyed  her  father,  mother,  brother,  and  two  little  sisters, 
and  that  she  was  now  left  in  the  world  alone.  0  war!  war! 
who  can  tell  thy  horrors! 

"  During  the  afternoon  I  visited  the  hospital.  Here  lay, 
upon  truckle  beds,  the  mangled  creatures  who  had  been 
wounded  during  the  bombardment.  In  one  corner  was  a 
poor,  decrepit,  bed-ridden  woman,  her  head  white  with  the 
sorrows  of  seventy  years.  One  of  her  withered  arms  had 
been  blown  off  with  the  fragment  of  a  shell.  In  another 
place  might  be  seen  mangled  creatures  of  both  sexes,  bruised 
find  disfigured  by  the  falling  of  their  houses  and  bursting  of 
the  shells.  On  the  stone  floor  lay  a  little  child,  in  a  com 
plete  state  of  nudity,  with  one  of  its  poor  legs  cut  off  just 
above  the  knee  !  The  apartment  was  filled  with  flies,  that 
seemed  to  delight  in  the  agonies  of  the  miserable  creatures 
over  whom  they  hovered  ;  and  the  moans  were  heart 
rending." 

"  We  are  yet  ignorant,"  says  a  Mexican  paper,  "  of  the 
exact  number  of  the  killed  and  wounded ;  but,  by  the  best 


136  LEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES    OF    THE    WAR. 

data  we  have  obtained,  estimate  both  at  not  less  than  1,000 
persons.  The  damage  done  to  dwellings  and  edifices  is 
five  or  six  million  dollars,  —  which  cannot  be  repaired  for 
many  years." 

The  same  authority  says  :  "  In  a  short  time  the  hospitals 
were  crowded  with  the  wounded,  the  dead  being  simulta 
neously  buried.  The  bombs  entered  the  walls  of  the  church 
of  Santo  Domingo,  killing  the  unfortunate  wounded,  fright 
ening  away  the  nurses  and  doctors,  who,  after  arriving  with 
haste  and  risk  at  the  church  of  San  Francisco,  and  the 
chapel  of  the  third  order,  encountered  the  same  dismal  fate, 
as  well  as  at  the  hospitals  of  Belen  and  Loretto,  where,  it  is 
well  ascertained,  one  bomb  assassinated  nineteen  innocent 
persons.  In  all  quarters  perished  unfortunate  persons, 
seeking  a  shelter  from  this  frightful  desolation  ;  while  the 
wounded  retaining  strength  enough  to  raise  themselves,  11  eel 
as  cripples,  and  sprinkled  the  streets  with  their  blood. 
Most  of  the  families,  whose  houses  had  been  destroyed, 
had  lost  everything ;  all  the  property  remaining  to  them 
being  the  clothes  on  their  backs,  because  what  the  flames 
did  not  consume  was  buried  under  the  ruins,  Hundreds  of 
persons,  as  well  as  fathers  of  numerous  families  of  children, 
heretofore  relying  upon  certain  incomes,  to-day  find  them 
selves  without  a  bed  to  lie  upon,  without  covering  or  cloth 
ing  to  shelter  them,  and  without  any  victuals.  Having  been 
a  target,  during  five  entire  days,  for  G,000  or  more  projec 
tiles,  which  separated  when  they  exploded,  forming,  with 
out  counting  the  stones  and  rubbish  thrown  up,  other  ele 
ments  of  destruction  to  the  amount  of  2,500,000  shots,  — 
after  sustaining  this  attack,  we  remain  reduced  to  the  most 
frightful  misery,  without  any  one  knowing  how,  to-morrow, 
to  feed  his  family." 

Tabasco.  "  In  view  of  this  scene,  Commodore  Perry  or 
dered  the  vessels  again  to  be  cast  loose  from  the  steamers, 
to  retake  their  position  for  raking  the  town,  and  now  gave 


LEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES    OF    THE    WAR.  137 

the  order  to  open  it,  in  vengeance  and  retaliation.  Two 
hours  were  spent  in  throwing  shot,  round  canister,  and 
grape,  and  musket  balls,  into  the  place,  demolishing  parts 
of  those  houses  from  which  Mexicans  were  seen  to  lire  ; 
and,  at  random^  but  always  with  certain  accuracy,  on  some 
part  of  the  town,  the  balls  and  shells  fell ;  and  wo  was 
borne  with  them,  even  to  the  sickening  of  the  hearts  of 
those  who  sent  them.  Signals,  at  length,  were  made  by  the 
commodore,  to  unite  the  tow  of  the  different  schooners  to 
the  steamers,  —  the  steamers  taking  a  schooner  under  each 
wing.  The  anchors  of  the  steamers  were  then  weighed 
and  they  stood  near  in  to  the  town,  as  they  passed  up  the 
stream,  and  raked  the  buildings  as  they  went  by.  Winding 
ship,  they  came  down  again,  discharging  their  other  battery 
continually,  and,  in  a  naval  point  of  view,  beautifully,  i  as 
they  glided  by  the  town,  and  now  left  it  in  its  injuries,  blood, 
and  sorrow.' " 

Mexico.  One  of  the  surgeons  of  the  army,  (who  has 
since  been  dangerously  wounded,)  writing  to  a  friend  after 
the  battles  of  Contreras  and  Churubusco,  says :  "  After 
operating,  with  my  assistants,  till  three  o'clock  in  the  morn 
ing,  I  left  the  building  of  which  I  had  made  a  temporary 
hospital,  to  take  an  hour's  rest  in  the  open  air.  /  turned 
round,  to  look  at  my  amputation  table  ;  under  it  was  a  perfect 
heap  of  a'rms  and  leys  ;  and,  looking  at  myself,  I  was  covered 
with  blood  from  head  to  foot." 

"  We  are  permitted,"  says  the  "  Syracuse  Daily  Journal" 
"  to  make  the  following  extracts  from  a  letter,  written  by 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  officers  of  the  army,  to  his 
wife : 

"  The  sight  of  one  battle-field  cures  one  of  a  desire  for 
military  life.  If  he  could  see  the  literal  piles  of  mangled 
corpses  of  the  slain,  —  some  without  heads,  some  without 
legs  or  arms,  some  with  their  bowels  torn  open,  the  ground 

12* 


138  LEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES    OF    THE    WAR- 

strewn  with  the  wounded,  dead,  and  dying,  —  he  would  be 
content  with  his  lot. 

"The  most  heart-sickening  spectacle  I  ever  beheld  was 
the  arch-episcopal  palace  at  Tacubaya,  converted  into  a  hos 
pital  on  the  day  of  Molino  del  Key.  The  floors  of  the  spa 
cious  apartments  were  covered  with  wounded  officers  and 
men,  to  the  extent  of  many  hundreds,  who  were  suffering 
horrid  agonies,  while  the  corps  of  surgeons  were  actively 
engaged  in  amputating  limbs  ;  some  of  the  victims  screamed 
with  agony,  while  others  sustained  themselves  with  heroic 
fortitude.  I  had  occasion  to  go  through  the  spacious  build 
ing  twice  that  day,  and  witnessed  many  operations.  I  saw 
the  amputated  limbs  quivering  with  life,  while  the  gutters 
of  the  court-  were  filled  with  streams  of  human  blood.  It 
was  heart-sickening,  and  enough  to  cure  any  man  of  a  taste 
for  war." 

A  Mexican  writes  as  follows,  of  the  taking  of  the  Capital : 
"On  the  morning  of  the  14th,  before  day-light,  the  enemy, 
with  a  part  of  his  force,  commenced  his  inarch  upon  the 
city.  Our  soldiers,  posted  behind  the  arches  of  the  aque 
ducts,  and  several  breast-works  which  had  been  hastily 
thrown  up,  annoyed  him  so  severely,  together  with  the 
trenches  which  he  had  to  bridge  over,  that  he  did  not  arrive 
at  the  gates  until  late  in  the  afternoon.  Here  he  halted  and 
attempted  to  bombard*  the  city,  which  he  did  during  the 
balance  of  the  day  and  the  day  following,  doing  immense 
damage.  In  some  cases,  whole  blocks  were  destroyed,  and 
a  great  number  of  men,  women,  and  children  killed  and 
wounded. 

"  The  picture  was  awful.  One  deafening  roar  filled  our 
ears,  one  cloud  of  smoke  met  our  eyes,  now  and  then  mixed 
with  flame  ;  and,  amid  it  all,  we  could  hear  the  various 
shrieks  of  the  wounded  and  dying. 

"Many  were  killed  by  the  blowing  up  of  the  houses; 
many  by  the  bombardment ;  but  more  by  the  confusion 


ILLEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES.  139 

which  prevailed  in  the  city ;  and  altogether  we  cannot 
count  our  killed,  wounded,  and  missing,  since  the  actions 
commenced  yesterday,  at  less  than  4,000,  —  among  whom 
are  many  women  and  children.  The  enemy  confesses  a  loss 
of  over  1,000;  it  is,  no  doubt,  much  greater." 


CHAPTER    XII. 

ILLEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES. 

"  War  is  also  the  fruitful  parent  of  crimes.  It  reverses,  with  respect 
to  its  objects,  all  the  rules  of  morality.  It  is  nothing  less  than  a  tem 
porary  repeal  of  the  principles  of  virtue.  It  is  a  system  out  of  which 
almost  all  the  virtues  are  excluded,  and  in  which  nearly  all  the  vices 
are  included/'  —  KOHKKT  HALL. 

BUT  there  is  another  picture,  —  not  of  fierce  and  cruel 
passions,  clothing  themselves  in  the  garb  of  the  laws  of  war, 
or  riding  on  the  whirlwind  of  battle,  but  bursting  forth, 
without  any  law,  restraint,  or  sanction,  unless  vengeance 
have  a  law.  Here,  too,  we  see  the  natural  fruits  of  war,  — 
the  natural  accompaniments,  more  or  less,  of  every  war. 
For,  when  the  passions  are  aroused  to  their  maximum,  they 
cannot  be  checked  at  any  particular  point  of  propriety, 
morality,  or  even  military  subordination ;  but  are  ready  to 
break  over  all  bounds,  and  rush  into  the  most  ungovernable 
extremes  of  cruelty  and  lust. 

In  order  to  substantiate  the  facts  under  this  branch  of 
the  subject,  we  shall  quote  the  testimony  of  the  soldiers  and 
letter-writers,  and  confirm  their  statements  by  the  authentic 
reports  of  the  commanding  generals  on  both  sides.  We 
shall  thus  see  that  the  Mexican  War,  waged  in  the  nine- 


140  ILLEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES. 

teenth  century,  between  two  professedly  free  and  Christian 
nations,  was  in  most  respects  no  better,  and  probably  no 
worse,  than  the  wars  of  past  times.  We  have  said  all  that 
can  be  said,  when  we  call  it  WAR. 

In  relation  to  the  inarch  of  a  body  of  troops  from  the 
Rio  Grande  towards  Monterey,  a  correspondent  of  the 
Louisville  Journal  writes  as  follows,  in  vindication  of  severe 
language  used  by  Gen.  Taylor,  respecting  the  volunteers  : 
"  The  inarch  of  the  regiment,  from  the  lawless  character  of 
some  of  those  composing  it,  was  everywhere  marked  by 
deeds  of  wanton  violence  and  cruelty.  Along  the  whole 
extent  of  the  march,  randies  were  burned,  cattle  wore 
shot,  hogs  and  poultry  were  killed,  and  even  pet  pigs  were 
slaughtered  at  the  very  feet  of  the  women  and  children 
that  owned  them.  The  shooting  of  cattle  was  often  done 
in  utter  wantonness  ;  the  marauders  either  suffering  them  to 
lie  just  as  they  fell,  or  merely  cutting  ^  out  their  tongues  and 
leaving  their  carcases  to  rot ;  thus  showing  that  it  was  not 
the  want  of  food  that  incited  them  to  outrage.  These  out 
rages  were  all  reported  to  Gen.  Taylor,  before  his  arrival  at 
Marin,  and  can  be  substantiated  by  Col.  Fauntleroy,  of  the 
2d  Dragoons ;  Col.  Randolph,  of  the  Virginia  Volunteers  ; 
Col.  Belknap,  Inspector  General  of  the  U.  S.  Army  ;  Lieut. 
Patterson,  of  the  Mississippi  Regiment,  and  many  others,  if 
necessary. 

"  At  Marin  itself,  where  the  severe  language  of  Gen. 
Taylor  is  said  to  have  been  used,  the  conduct  of  the  ad 
vanced  guard  of  Col.  Curtis's  regiment  was  marked  by  sim 
ilar  atrocities.  The  night  before  the  arrival  of  the  Ohio 
Regiment  there,  Gen.  Taylor  had  slept  in  the  town  and 
seen  the  Alcalde,  had  been  the  guest  of  some  of  the  princi 
pal  citizens,  had  broken  bread  with  them,  and  had  promised 
them  protection.  But  the  advanced  guard  of  Curtis's  regi 
ment  entered  the  town ;  and  instantly  the  work  of  pillage, 
robbery,  and  devastation  was  begun.  At  least  four  houses 
were  set  on  fire  by  them." 


ILLEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES.  141 

The  Monterey  correspondent  of  the  Charleston  Mercury, 
after  the  capitulation  of  the  city,  says :  "  As  at  Matamoras, 
murder,  robbery,  and  rape,  were  committed  in  broad  light 
of  day ;  and,  as  if  desirous  to  signalize  themselves,  at  Mon 
terey,  by  some  new  act  of  atrocity,  they  burned  many  of  the 
thatched  huts  of  the  poor  peasants.  It  is  thought  that  more 
than  one  hundred  of  the  inhabitants  were  murdered  in  cold 
blood ;  and  one  Mexican  soldier,  with  Gen.  Worth's  pass 
port  in  his  pocket,  was  shot  dead  at  noon-day,  in  the  main 
street  of  the  city,  by  a  ruffian  from  Texas.  But  for  the 
moral  influence,  and  the  finally  exerted  physical  force  of  the 
hirelings  of  government,  the  dark  deeds  of  Badajoz  would 
have  been  repeated  at  Monterey.  Guards  of  *  mercenaries ' 
are  now  placed  in  every  street,  and  over  every  building,  in 
the  city ;  to  prevent  depredations  being  committed  by  those 
who  come  here  from  devotion  to  '  the  land  of  the  free  and 
the  home  of  the  brave.' 

"  The  Mexicans  themselves  admit,  that  before  the  arrival 
.of  the  volunteers  upon  the  Rio  Grande,  all  Eastern  Mexico 
was  ripe  for  revolt,  and  annexation  to  the  United  States. 
Now  there  is  no  portion  of  the  country  so  bitterly  hostile  to 
us  and  our  institutions." 

The  army  correspondent  of  the  New  Orleans  Picayune, 
Mr.  Haile,  writing  from  near  Mier,  Jan.  4,  1847,  says  : 
"  Below  Mier  we  met  the  2d  regiment  of  Indiana  troops, 
commanded,  I  believe,  by  Col.  Drake.  They  encamped 
near  our  camp,  and  a  portion  of  them  were  exceedingly  irre 
gular  in  their  behavior;  firing  away  their  cartridges,  and 
persecuting  the  Mexican  families  at  a  rancho  n^ar  by." 

"  On  .arriving  at  Mier  we  learned,  from  indisputable  au 
thority,  that  this  same  regiment  had  committed,  the  day 
before,  outrages  against  the  citizens  of  the  most  disgraceful 
character ;  stealing,  or  rather  robbing,  insulting  the  women, 
breaking  into  houses,  and  other  feats  of  a  similar  character ! 
We  have  heard  of  them  at  almost  every  rancho  up  to  this 
pla-ce. 


142  ILLEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES. 

"  Gen.  Taylor  has  issued  proclamations,  assuring  the  in 
habitants  of  the  towns  in  the  conq  :ered  territory  that  they 
should  be  protected  and  well  treated  by  our  troops.  Since 
this  place  has  been  garrisoned  by  volunteers,  the  families 
have  been  subjected  to  all  kinds  of  outrages.  At  Punta 
Aguda  it  has  been  the  same ;  most  of  those  who  could  go, 
have  left  their  houses.  Some  have  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  the  Camanches,  while  flying  from  the  persecutions  of 
our  volunteer  troops.  Recently,  the  troops  have  received 
treatment  from  men  stationed  here,  (I  do  not  know  who 
commands  them.)  that  negroes  in  a  state  of  insurrection 
would  hardly  be  guilty  of.  The  women  have  been  repeat 
edly  violated,  (almost  an  every  day  affair,)  houses  are 
broken  open,  and  insults  of  every  kind  have  been  offered 
to  those  whom  we  are  bound  by  honor  to  protect.  This  is 
nothing  more  than  a  statement  of  facts.  I  have  no  time  to 
make  comments  ;  but  I  desire  to  have  this  published,  and  I 
have  written  it  under  the  approval  of  Capt.  Thornton,  Major 
Dix,  (who  has  in  charge  8250,000  of  the  United  States' 
money,)  Capt.  De  Hart,  Col.  Bohlen,  Lieut.  Thorn,  Mr. 
Blanchard.  and  my  own  sense  of  duty;  and  I  am  deter 
mined,  hereafter,  to  notice  every  serious  offence  of  the  above 
mentioned  nature." 

In  confirmation  of  these  anonymous  and  other  statements, 
we  cite,  from  the  Reports  and  Orders  of  Gen.  Taylor,  as 
follows.  He  writes  from  Monterey,  Oct.  6,  1846,  to  the 
department  at  Washington : *  "I  have  respectfully  to  report, 
that  the  entire  force  of  Texas  volunteers  nas  been  mustered 
out  of  service,  and  is  now  returning  home  by  companies. 
With  their  departure  we  may  look  for  a  restoration  of  quiet 
and  order  in  Monterey ;  for,  I  regret  to  report,  that  some 
shameful  atrocities  have  been  perpetrated  by  them,  since  the 
capitulation  of  the  town." 

*  30th  Congress,  1st  Session,  House  of  Representatives,  Ex.  Doc.  GO, 
pp.430,  512,  513,521. 


ILLEGITIMATE}   BARBARITIES.  143 

Again ;  he  issues  orders,  from  the  same  place,  Nov.  27, 
1846,  that  "The  many  outrages,  that  have  been  recently 
committed  in  the  city  of  Monterey,  and  elsewhere,  upon  the 
persons  and  property  of  Mexican  citizens,  render  it  neces 
sary  to  restrict  the  extensive  use  of  riding  animals  among 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  army."  So  it  appears  that  the  Tex- 
ans  were  not  the  only  peccant  soldiers  in  the  camp. 

On  Dec.  2,  184G,  orders  are  again  sent  out,  to  the  follow 
ing  effect ;  "  Grave  complaints  have  come  to  the  command 
ing  general,  touching  depreciations  alleged  to  have  been 
committed  near  Mariu  and  Kamos,  by  troops  and  armed 
parties  passing  on  the  road.  The  general  is  therefore  under 
the  necessity  of  calling  the  attention  of  all  officers,  command 
ing  escorts  or  other  bodies  of  troops,  and  of  all  discharged 
men  or  others  who  may  travel  armed,  between  this  point 
and  Camargo,  to  the  great  importance  of  respecting  the 
rights  of  all  Mexican  citizens.  The  good  faith  of  the  coun 
try  and  the  army  lias  been  pledged  to  this  course ;  and  it 
is  the  interest  of  all  to  see  that  the  reputation  of  neither  be 
disgraced,  by  scenes  of  plunder  and  marauding.  The  troops 
are  well  supplied  with  the  subsistence  and  forage  allowed  by 
law,  and  nothing  can  justify  the  wanton  destruction  of  pri 
vate  property." 

On  Oct.  5th  a  Mexican  lancer  was  shot  in  open  daylight 
in  the  streets  of  Monterey,  according  to  the  report  of  the 
commander  in  chief. 

The  Special  Orders  of  Dec.  7,  184G,  relate  to  a  "court 
of  inquiry,  convened  at  the  request  of  Captain  C.  W.  Bul- 
lin,  1st  Kentucky  regiment,  to  investigate  the  imputations 
against  Company  D,  as  connected  with  the  violent  death  of 
a  Mexican." 

A  published  letter  from  Monterey,  dated  Nov.  30,  184G, 
says,  "  The  tables  have  been  turned  on  the  Mexicans,  and 
for  those  -who  have  been  assassinated  of  the  volunteers,  a 
donble  number  of  the  enemy  have  suffered  within  a  day  or 


144  ILLEGITIMATE   BARBARITIES. 

two.  It  is  reported  this-  morning,  that  Gen.  Taylor  has 
ordered  the  1st  Kentuckians  to  Ceralvo,  to  prevent  this 
killing." 

"The  war,"  says  the  same  writer,  Dec.  1,  1846,  "between 
the  Kentuckians  and  Mexicans,  as  it  is  familiarly  termed, 
has  created  no  little  excitement  both  in  town  and  the  camp. 
It  is  thought  that  not  less  than  forty  Mexicans  have  been 
killed  within  the  last  five  days,  fifteen  of  whom,  it  is  said, 
were  killed  in  one  day,  and  within  the  scope  of  one  mile. 
From  this,  you  will  see  that  the  boys  are  determined  to  have 
and  to  take  revenge  for  the  assassination  of  their  comrades. 

"  Ever  since  the  occupation  of  Matamoras  by  our  troops, 
the  Mexicans  have  been  cutting  off  our  men,  whenever  they 
could  be  found  in  convenient  places  for  the  job;  and  the 
compliment  has  been  invariably  returned,  generally  two  for 
one." 

A  letter  from  Camargo,  Jan.  8,  1847,  says,  "assassina 
tions,  riots,  robberies,  etc.,  are  so  frequent  that  they  do  not 
excite  much  attention.  Nine-tenths  of  the  Americans  here 
.think  it  a  meritorious  act  to  kill  or  rob  a  Mexican ;  and  as 
large  or  larger  proportion  of  the  latter  think  it  is  doing 
'  God  service '  to  retaliate  in  kind.  Sometimes  one  side,  and 
then  the  other  are  the  aggressors.  Intense  and  bitter  hatred 
exists  on  both  sides ;  and  the  impunity  with  which  crimes 
are  committed  operates  as  a  license.  There  exists  a  kind 
of  military  authority  and  a  species  of  civil  power,  neither 
well  defined,  nor  of  much  efficiency. 

"  To  enumerate  the  various  acts  of  violence  committed, 
would  fill  a  column  or  two  of  your  paper,  and  probably  not 
do  much  good.  In  the  newspaper  published  here,  they  are 
occasionally  briefly  stated.  Two  days  since,  a  Mexican,  well 
known  here,  was  found  in  the  public  road  about  two  miles 
from  town,  mortally  wounded.  He  lived  long  enough  to 
state  that  he  had  been  met  by  two  young  men  with  muskets 
amd  bayonets.  They  demanded  his  blanket ;  he  gave  it  up, 


ILLEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES-  145 

and  as  he  was  riding  off,  one  of  the  men  deliberately  shot 
him  through  the  body.  He  leaves  a  widow  and  five  or  six 
young  children.  Murders  equally  cruel,  have  been  perpe 
trated  on  our  people,  and  no  one  can  be  discovered  as  the 
guilty  person." 

The  horrid  tale  below  is  from  a  letter  published  in  the 
/St.  Louis  Republican. 

"  Gamp  of  the  Army  at  Ayua  Nueva  \ 
Mexico,  February  13,  1847.        f 

"Some  most  unfortunate  events  have  transpired  in  our 
column  lately,  which  will  arouse  the  vengeance  of  the  '  pai- 
sanos'  (peasants)  in  this  country  against  our  troops,  and  will 
furnish  the  disaffected  at  home  with  new  food  for  vitupera 
tion  against  the  war.  Occasional  murders  of  our  men  have 
been  perpetrated  ever  since  we  have  been  in  this  country, — 
all  killed  by  the  lasso.  The  Arkansas  regiment  of  horse, 
from  their  having  been  employed  as  scouts,  and  occupying 
the  outposts,  have  been  particularly  exposed  to  this  guerilla 
warfare,  and  have  lost  four  or  five  of  their  men.  The  day 
before  yesterday,  it  was  reported  that  one  of  their  number 
had  been  killed  by  the  Mexicans,  as  he  had  been  missing 
from  camp  since  the  day  before,  when  he  went  out  to  look 
for  his  horse. 

"  Search  was  made  for  the  body,  and  it  was  found  about  a 
thousand  yards  from  our  camp,  with  a  lasso  *  around  the 
neck,  and  tied  to  a  prickly  pear,  having  been  dragged  some 
hundred  yards  upon  the  face  through  the  chapparal.  It  pre 
sented  a  horrible  sight:  the  name  of  the  young  man  was 
Colquitt,  a  nephew  of  the  senator.  The  Arkansas  men 
vowed  vengeance,  deep  and  sure.  Yesterday  morning,  a 
number  of  them,  some  thirty  perhaps,  went  out  to  the  foot  of 
the  mountain,  t\vo  miles  off,  to  an  'arroyo'  which  is  washed 
in  the  side  of  the  mountain,  to  which  the  « paisanos '  of  Agua 

*  The  "  lasso"  was  in  use  among  some  of  the  wild  troops  in 
Xerxes'  urmv  in  his  invasion  of  Greece.  Herodotus,  7.  85. 

13 


146  ILLEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES, 

Nueva  had  fled  upon  our  approach,  and  soon  commenced  an 
indiscriminate  and  bloody  massacre  of  the  poor  creatures,  who 
had  thus  fled  to  the  mountains  and  fastnesses  for  security, 
A  number  of  our  regiment  being  out  of  camp,  I  proposed  to 
Col.  Bissel  to  mount  our  horses  and  ride  to  the  scene  of  car 
nage,  where  I  knew,  from  the  dark  insinuations  of  the  night 
before,  that  blood  was  running  freely.  We  hastened  out  aa 
hastily  as  possible,  but  owing  to  the  thick  chapparals,  the 
work  of  death  was  over  before  we  reached  the  horrible 
scene,  and  the  perpetrators  were  returning  to  camp  glutted 
with  revenge. 

"  Let  us  no  longer  complain  of  Mexican  barbarity,  —  poor, 
degraded,  'priest  ridden'  as  she  is.  No  act  of  inhuman 
cruelty,  perpetrated  by  her  most  desperate  robbers,  can  excel 
the  work  of  yesterday,  committed  by  our  soldiery.  God 
knows  how  many  of  the  unarmed  peasantry  have  been  sac 
rificed  to  atone  for  the  blood  of  poor  Colquitt.  The  Arkan 
sas  regiment  say  not  less  than  thirty  have  been  killed.  I 
think,  however,  at  least  twenty  of  them  have  been  sent  to 
their  eternal  rest.  I  rode  through  the  chapparals,  and  found 
a  number  of  their  dead  bodies  not  yet  cold.  The  features, 
in  every  instance,  were  composed  and  tranquil,  —  lying  upon 
their  backs,  eyes  closed,  and  feet  crossed.  —  You  would  have 
supposed  them  sleeping,  but  for  the  gory  stream  which  be 
dewed  the  turf  around  them.  In  some  instances,  after  the 
vital  spark  had  fled,  in  the  overflow  of  demoniac  vengeance 
the  carbine  ball  dashed  out  the  brains  of  its  clayey  victim." 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  one  of  the  Orders  of 
Gen.  Taylor  in  relation  to  this  barbarity.  "  The  Commanding 
General  regrets  most  deeply  that  circumstances  again  impose 
upon  him  the  duty  of  issuing  orders  upon  the  subject  of 
marauding  and  maltreating  the  Mexicans.  Such  deeds  as 
have  been  recently  perpetrated  by  a  portion  of  the  Arkansas 
cavalry,  cast  indelible  disgrace  upon  our  arms,  and  the  repu 
tation  of  our  country.  The  General  had  hoped  that  he 


ILLEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES.  147 

might  be  able  in  a  short  time  to  resume  offensive  operations, 
but  if  orders,  discipline,  and  all  the  dictates  of  humanity  are 
set  at  defiance,  it  is  vain  to  expect  any  thing  but  disaster 
and  defeat.  The  men  who  cowardly  put  to  death  unoffend 
ing  Mexicans,  are  not  those  who  will  sustain  the  honor  of 
our  arms  in  the  day  of  trial." 

Gen.  Taylor  showed  his  sagacity  in  this  prediction,  for  it 
was  -precisely  those  troops  that  a  few  days  afterwards  were 
the  first  to  fiy  from  the  field  of  Buena  Vista. 

It  was  in  reference  to  these  and  similar  barbarities  that 
Santa  Anna  said  to  Gen.  Taylor's  messenger  at  Agua  Nueva 
on  the  day  after  that  battle ;  "  the  Americans  wage  against 
us  a  war  of  Vandalism,  whose  excesses  outrage  those  senti 
ments  of  humanity  which  one  civilized  nation  ought  to  evince 
toward  another.  In  proof  of  this  assertion,  you  have  but  to 
go  outside  of  this  apartment  to  see  still  smoking  the  dwellings 
of  this  recently  flourishing  village ;  you  passed  the  same 
vestiges  of  desolation  at  La  Encantada  on  your  route  hither ; 
and  if  you  will  go  a  little  farther  on,  there,  to  Catana,  you 
will  hear  the  moans  of  the  widows  and  orphans  of  innocent 
victims  who  have  been  sacrificed  without  necessity." 

We  gather  the  following  from  the  Boston  Daily  Times  of 
May  11,  1847:- 

"  By  a  letter  from  Gen.  Taylor  of  the  4th  April,  it  appears 
that  a  party  of  Americans,  under  Col.  Mitchell's  command, 
the  1st  Ohio  U.  S.  Dragoons,  and  Texas  Rangers,  made 
prisoners  of  twenty-four  Mexicans  at  Guellapea,  gave  them 
a  mock  trial  by  night,  and  then  shot  them  through  the  head ! " 

The  above  narrative  will  lead  us  to  believe,  that  the  Mex 
ican  accounts  of  the  war  are  not  wholly  exaggerations.  They 
refer  to  "  the  thousand  and  ten  thousand  assassinations  com 
mitted  by  our  troops ; "  "  multitudes  of  Mexicans  wandering 
in  the  woods,  and  pursued  like  wild  beasts  in  their  own 
country,  robbed  of  their  property,  and  driven  from  their 
families;  the  multitude  of  peaceable  and  honorable  men, 


148  ILLEGITIMATE   BARBARITIES. 

who  have  been  insulted,  seized  and  beaten  in  presence  even 
of  a  beloved  daughter,  or  idolized  wife ;  the  proud  barbarity, 
the  shameless  cruelty  required  to  burn  the  village,  to  slay 
the  simple  rustic,  the  feeble  woman  and  the  innocent  child, 
as  we  beheld  at  Agua  Nueva,  Hidalgo,  and  other  towns  of 
the  North." 

So  outrageous  was  the  conduct  of  the  United  States  troops, 
that  General  Mora  y  Villamil,  commander  at  San  Luis  Potosi, 
wrote  a  spirited  remonstrance  to  Gen.  Taylor,  dated  May 
10,  1847,  in  which  he  says;*  "that  the  treacherous  assas 
sinations  of  Agua  Nueva,  Catana,  and  Marin  have  not  been 
the  only  ones  ; "  and  that  the  "  ruin,  devastation,  and  confla 
gration  of  towns  mark  every  where  the  march  of  the  in 
vading  army."  In  his  reply  of  May  19,  1847, -Gen.  Taylor 
acknowledges  the  facts  referred  to,  and  says  that  "  they  were 
in  truth  unfortunate  exceptions,  (to  the  mode  in  which  the 
war  was  generally  conducted  in  that  part  of  Mexico)  caused 
by  circumstances  beyond  my  control."  He  also  states  the 
violent  provocations  which  led  to  the  above  mentioned  bar 
barities,  and  says  also,  "  Mexican  troops  have  given  to  the 
world  the  example  of  killing  wounded  men  upon  the  field 
of  battle."  In  a  letter  to  the  War  Department  at  Washing 
ton,  dated  May  23.  1847,  he  discusses  the  unpleasant  sub 
ject,  confesses  the  facts,  attributes  them  to  the  volunteer 
troops,  and  says,  "  while  no  one  can  regret  their  occurrence 
more  than  I  do,  yet  I  have  not  to  reproach  myself  with  the 
omission  of  any  precaution  to  prevent  them.  Without  a 
sufficient  regular  force  even  to  guard  our  magazines  and 
depots,  I  have  found  it  entirely  impossible  to  enforce,  in  all 
cases,  the  repeated  orders  which  have  been  given  against 
marauding  and  other  irregularities." 

Still  later,  June  16,  1847,  we  have  the  following  some 
what  "  rough  and  ready  "  f  sentences  from  the  same  pen ;  "  I 

*  30th  Con^-  l*t  Sess.  Ex.  Doc.  60.  House  of  Rep.  pp.  1139 — 1142. 

i  '•  Rough  and  Ready ; "  this  phrase  occurs  in  Carlyle's  edition  of 
i:the  Letters  and  Speeches  of  Oliver  Cromwell,''  First  Parliament, 
Speech  Second.  1S45. 


ILLEGITIMATE    BAKBARITIES.  149 

deeply  regret  to  report  that  many  of  the  twelve  months'  vol 
unteers  in  their  route  hence  of  (to)  the  lower  Rio  Grande, 
have  committed  extensive  depredations  and  outrages  upon 
the  peaceful  inhabitants.  There  is  scarcely  a  form  of  crime 
that  has  not  been  reported  to  me  as  committed  by  them ;  but 
they  have  passed  beyond  my  reach,  and  even  were  they  here, 
it  would  be  found  next  to  impossible  to  detect  the  individuals 
who  thus  disgrace  their  colors  and  their  country.  Were  it 
possible  to  rouse  the  Mexican  people  to  resistance,  no  more 
effectual  plan  could  be  devised  than  the  very  one  pursued 
by  some  of  our  volunteer  regiments,  now  about  to  be  dis 
charged. 

"  The  volunteers  for  the  war,  so  far,  give  an  earnest  of 
better  conduct,  with  the  exception  of  the  companies  of  Texas 
horse.  Of  the  infantry  I  have  had  little  or  no  complaint ; 
but  the  mounted  men  from  Texas  have  scarcely  made  one 
expedition  without  unwarrantably  killing  a  Mexican.  I 
have,  in  consequence,  ordered  Major  Chevallies'  command 
to  Saltillo,  where  it  ca.n  do  less  mischief  than  here,  and  where 
its  services  moreover  arc  wanted.  The  constant  recurrence 
of  such  atrocities,  which  I  have  been  reluctant  to  report  to 
the  department,  is  my  motive  for  requesting  that  no  more 
troops  may  be  sent  to  this  column  from  the  state  of  Texas."  * 

A  few  items  respecting  the  invading  "  Army  of  the  West " 
will  give  a  like  melancholy  picture  of  unbridled  passions  and 
crnel  and  disgraceful  excesses,  at  which  every  feeling  of 
common  justice  and  humanity  cries  out  with  horror.  But 
we  record  these  things  not  to  heap  opprobrium  upon  indi 
viduals,  but  to  demonstrate  the  abominableness  of  a  system ; 
we  do  it  not,  because  we  love  our  country  less,  but  because 
we  love  peace  and  right  more. 

F.  S.  Edwards  in  his  work,  "A  Campaign  in  New  Mex 
ico,"  says,  when  at  Ceralvo,  "  I  have  been  credibly  informed 
that  when  these  rangers  are  sent  out  on  scouting  parties,  a 

*  30th  Cong.  1  st  Sess.  Ex.  Doc.  No.  60.  p.  1 1 78.     The  italics  are  ours. 
13* 


150  ILLEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES. 

Mexican  guide  is  generally  provided,  but  that  he  never 
returns ;  the  Texans  always  shooting  him  on  some  pretext 
or  other  before  he  gets  back. 

"  One  of  the  most  dastardly  acts  I  ever  heard  of  was  per 
petrated  by  half  a  dozen  Texan  officers  a  short  time  before 
we  came  down.  They  had  lost  their  way,  and  hired  a  Mex 
ican  to  show  them  to  their  camp,  which  he  faithfully  per 
formed  ;  but  when  they  came  in  sight  of  it,  they  drew  lots 
who  should  shoot  their  faithful  and  unsuspecting  guide ;  — 
the, one  on  whom  the  lot  fell,  immediately  drew  a  pistol  and 
shot  him." 

The  same  author  relates  that  in  his  march  from  Camargo 
to  Reinosa,  one  of  the  party  incautiously  advanced  two  or 
three  hundred  yards  ahead  of  the  guard,  and  was  shot  by 
some  Mexicans  who  were  seen  riding  off  at  full  speed.  His 
comrades  when  they  arrived  at  the  next  small  town,  searched 
for  the  murderers,  and  having  as  they  supposed  found  them, 
killed  seven  men,  and  burned  down  the  house  in  which  they 
were  found. 

Dr.  AVislizenus,  in  "a  Memoir  of  a  Tour  to  North 
ern  Mexico,"  published  under  authority  of  Congress,* 
writing  under  the  head  of  Parras,  May  14,  1847,  says  ; 
"  one  of  our  waggon  drivers,  a  very  quiet  man,  had  been 
assaulted  by  a  Mexican  loafer,  and  received  several 
wounds,  from  the  effect  of  which  he  afterwards  died.  As 
the  prefect  of  Parras  was  not  able  to  find  out  the  guilty 
person,  the  friends  of  the  wounded  man  took  revenge  on 
some  Mexicans,  and  more  disturbance  would  have  grown 
out  of  it,  if  we  had  stayed  longer." 

We  quote  another  passage  from  the  same  book.  "  About 
six  miles  from  Marin,  is  the  spot  where  General  Canales, 
with  his  guerilla  bands,  had  captured,  some  months  past, 
a  rich  train  of  the  American  army,  and  killed  most  of  the 
unarmed  waggon  drivers.  The  bones  of  these  ill-fated 

*  30th  Congress,  1st  Session.  Senate.  Miscellaneous,  No.  26.  p.  73, 78. 


ILLEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES.  151 

raen,  which  were  either  not  buried  at  all,  or  dragged  out 
by  the  wolves,  were  scattered  about  in  all  directions. 
Another  more  horrid  spectacle  offered  itself  to  our  eyes 
near  Agua  Negra,  a  deserted  village,  where  a  man  (and  to 
judge  from  pieces  of  clothing,  an  American)  had  been  burnt 
to  ashes,  some  bones  only  being  left.  In  seeing  such  hor 
rors,  known  only  in  old  Indian  warfare,  can  any  one 
blame  the  American  troops  for  having  sought  revenge,  and 
burning  all  the  villages  and  ranches  on  their  route 
which  gave  refuge  to  such  bands  of  worse  than  highway 
robbers?  The  right  of  retaliation,  (?)  as  we.ll  as  expediency, 
command,  in  my  opinion,  such  measures  against  such  unu 
sual  warfare  ;  and  when  carried  out  with  some  circum 
spection,  it  will  break  up  those  guerilla  bands  much  sooner 
than  too  lenient  a  course." 

He  states  that  at  Ceralvo  on  May  22,  1847,  Nicholas 
Garcia,  a  well  known  chief  of  a  guerilla  band,  "  who  was 
said  to  have  committed  many  cruelties  against  Ameri 
cans,"  was  captured  by  some  Texan  Rangers,  and  shot  the 
same  day  in  the  public  Plaza ;  "  dying  like  a  brave  man." 

The  following  extract  from  the  orders  of  Gen.  Wool  will 
speak  for  itself. 

Headquarters,   Army  of  Occupation,  \ 
Monterey,  Mexico,  February,  27,  1848.  ) 

"  A  band  of  American  robbers,  composed  principally  of 
deserters  (chiefly  from  the  Texas  Battalion,  and  Captain 
Mear's  company  of  Volunteer  Cavalry,)  dishonorably  dis 
charged  soldiers,  and  followers  of  the  Army,  have  been 
ravaging  the  country  from  Parras  to  the  Presidio  de  Rio 
Grande,  ravishing  the  women,  and  committing  every  spe 
cies  of  atrocity  on  the  defenceless  inhabitants. 

"  A  similar  party  lias  recently  robbed  an  entire  village, 
under  the  pretence  of  being  a  detachment  of  the  American 
Army,  sent  to  levy  contribution??  on  the  placo. 


152  ILLEGITIMATE  BARBARITIES. 

"  These  acts  so  criminal  in  themselves,  and  reflecting  so 
much  approbrium  on  the  American  name,  call  upon  every 
one  to  make  all  possible  exertions  to  apprehend  the  villains, 
and  bring  them  to  punishment.  The  officers  commanding 
at  Monclova,  Presidio,  Laredo,  Mier,  and  Ceralvo  will 
endeavor  to  effect  this  object  by  every  means  in  their  power." 

By  command  of  brigadier  General  Wool, 

IRYIN  MCDOWELL,  A.  A.  G." 

It  is  unnecessary  to  go  into  California  and  New  Mexico, 
and  adduce  testimony  nf  a  like  ignominious  character 
against  some  of  the  actors  in  the  Mexican  war.  It  might 
be  said  that  in  those  remote  and  barbarous  regions  nothing 
but  outrage  and  revenge  could  be  expected.  We  will  come 
then  to  the  theatre  of  Gen.  Scott's  operations  from  Yera 
Cruz  to  Mexico,  and  substantiate  the  general  truth  of  the 
statements  made,  by  his  own  indignant  words. 

The  difficulties  began  at  the  very  outset  of  the  Campaign. 
Gen.  Scott  reports  to  the  Department  at  home,  in  a  letter 
dated  Yera  Cruz,  April  5,  1847  ;*  "  the  seven  old  volun 
teer  regiments  with  me,  now  become  respectable  in  discipline 
and  efficiency,  cannot  fail  to  give  us  much  trouble  when  the 
time  of  their  discharge  and  transportation  back  to  their 
homes,  shall  arrive." 

*  *  *  *  #  * 

"  The  inhabitants  of  this  city,  under  the  excellent  gov 
ernment  of  Brevet  Major  General  Worth,  are  beginning  to 
be  assured  of  protection,  and  to  be  cheerful.  Those  in  the 
vicinity  have  suffered  more  from  green  recruits,  who 
much  dilute  the  regular  companies,  and  from  volunteers. 
My  last  orders,  No.  87.  herewith,  against  outrages,  have  ral 
lied  thousands  of  good  soldiers  to  the  support  of  authority. 
In  the  mean  time,  claims  for  damages,  principally  on  the 
part  of  neutrals,  through  their  consuls,  have  been  many. 

*  30th  Congress,  1st  Session,  Ex.  Doc.  No.  00.  pp.  910,  914. 


ILLEGITIMATE    BABAEITIE3.  153 

I  am  without  authority  or  means  to  indemnify,  and  can  only 
feel  and  deplore  the  disgrace  brought  upon  our  arms  by 
undetected  villains." 

These  extracts  are  from  the  orders  above  mentioned, 
dated  Vera  Cruz,  April  1,  1847.  "Notwithstanding  the 
strong  provisions  of  printed  general  orders,  No.  20,  pro 
claiming  martial  law,  many  undoubted  atrocities  have  been 
committed  in  this  neighborhood,  by  a  few  worthless  soldiers, 
both  regulars  and  volunteers,  which,  though  stamping  dis 
grace  upon  the  whole  army,  remain  unpunished,  because 
the  criminals  have  not  been  seized,  and  reported  by  eye 
witnesses  of  the  atrocities.  *  *  * 

"  One  more  appeal  is  made  to  the  ninety-seven  honorable 
men,  against,  perhaps,  the  three  miscreants  in  every 
hundred.  Certainly  the  great  mass  ought  not  to  allow  them 
selves  to  be  dishonored  by  a  handful  of  scoundrels,  who 
scout  all  religion,  morals,  law  and  decency.  Therefore 
let  every  bad  man  be  denounced  in  his  act  of  guilt,  seized, 
and  reported  for  trial,  and  this  army  will  march  in  triumph, 
and  be  every  where  kindly  received,  and  supplied  with 
necessaries  and  comforts  by  the  peaceful  and  unoffending 
inhabitants  of  the  country." 

We  have  spoken  in  another  connection  of  the  hanging 
of  Isaac  Kirk,  a  free  colored  citizen  of  the  United  States, 
at  Vera  Cruz,  April  10,  1847. 

It  is  needless  to  encumber  these  pages  with  detailed 
accounts  of  the  outrages  to  persons,  property  and  liberty, 
which  marked  the  course  of  the  American  Army,  and  the 
horrible  deeds  done  by  bands  of  the  Mexican  guerillas. 
They  are  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  war,  but  they  find 
little  space  for  memory  except  on  the  tablets  of  those 
bruised  and  broken  hearts  that  encountered  the  storm  of 
invasion. 

The  American  commander  writes  from  the  city  of  Mexico, 
Oct.  13,  1847  :  "I  have  heard  of  many  outrages  and  dis- 


154  ILLEGITIMATE  BARBARITIES. 

orders  said  to  have  been  committed  by  Major  Lally's 
detachment  about  Jalapa.  I  trust  that  the  rumors  greatly 
exaggerate  the  facts  ;  or  rather  that  they  are  entirely  false. 
I  will  tolerate  no  disorders  of  any  kind,  but  cause  all  to  be 
rigorously  punished.  ]STo  officer  or  man,  under  my  orders, 
shall  be  allowed  to  dishonor  me,  the  army,  and  the  United 
States  with  impunity." 

In  a  letter,  dated  Dec.  25,  1847,  he  says  further  ;  "  I  do 
not  mean  to  accuse  the  reinforcements  generally  of  de 
ficiency  in  valor,  patriotism,  or  moral  character.  Far  from 
it  ;  but  among  all  new  levies,  of  whatever  denomination, 
there  are  always  a  few  miscreants  in  every  hundred; 
enough  without  discipline  to  disgrace  the  entire  mass,  and 
what  is  infinitely  worse, — the  country  that  employs  them. 
My  daily  distresses  under  this  head  weigh  me  to  the 
earth." 

The  following  extract  from  an  American  correspondent 
in  the  city  of  Mexico  will  illustrate  the  nature  of  some  of 
Gen.  Scott's  «  distresses." 

"  On  Sunday  night  a  Texan  Ranger  named  Adam 
Alsence,  of  Capt.  Robert's  company,  was  attacked  by  a 
number  of  Mexicans  in  the  suburbs  of  the  city,  and  killed. 
He  was  mangled  in  a  brutal  manner,  and  the  Texans,  exas 
perated  at  the  cruel  death  of  their  comrade,  sallied  into  the 
streets  the  next  evening,  to  the  number  of  fifteen  or  twenty, 
and  proceeding  to  the  quarter  where  Alsence  was  killed, 
took  fearful  vengeance  upon  a  party  whom  they  found  armed 
with  pistols  and  knives.  Seventeen  of  the  Mexicans  are 
reported  killed,  and  forty  wounded.  Alsence  was  a  Ger- 
inan,  and  served  in  Bonaparte's  Cavalry  and  was  a  good 
and  faithful  soldier."* 

*  The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  letter  in  the  Nav  Orleans 
Delta,  dated  City  of  Mexico,  Dec.  13,  1847.  "About  an  hour  ago, 
some  of  them,  (Texans)  were  quietly  passing  through  one  of  the 
streets,  when  a  crowd  of  leperos  gathered  around  them,  and  commenced 


ILLEGITIMATE    BARBARITIES.  155 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  letter  to  Gen.  Scott 
from  Santa  Anna  relative  to  the  renewal  of  hostilities  after 
the  armistice  and  the  fruitless  attempt  to  negotiate  a  peace. 
He  says,  and  with  the  above  declarations  of  the  Ameri 
can  General  in  our  recollection,  we  shall  probably  think 
that  he  does  not  speak  altogether  a  la  Mexique  ;  "  I  have 
with  pain  and  indignation,  received  communications  from 
the  cities  and  towns  occupied  by  the  army  of  your  ex 
cellency,  upon  the  violations  of  temples  consecrated  to 
the  worship  of  God  ;  upon  the  robbery  of  the  sacred  ves 
sels,  and  profanation  of  the  images,  venerated  by  the 
Mexican  people.  I  have  been  profoundly  afflicted  by  the 
complaints  of  fathers  and  husbands  upon  the  violation  of 
their  wives  and  daughters.  Those  same  cities  and  towns 
have  been  sacked,  not  only  in  violation  of  the  armistice,  but 
even  of  the  sacred  principles  recognized  and  observed  by 
civilized  nations.  I  had  guarded  silence  until  now,  for  the 
purpose  of  not  chilling  a  negotiation  that  gave  hopes  of 
terminating  a  scandalous  war,  which  your  excellency  has 
justly  characterized  as  unnatural."* 

A  few  words  in  conclusion.  The  dark  and  dismal  pages 
through  which  we  have  led  our  readers  in  these  chapters  are 
but  too  easily  interpreted.  They  are  the  old  story  of  war. 
They  are  the  picture,  not  only  of  stately  battles,  in  which 
horror  is  legitimated,  but  of  a  running  warfare,  embittered 
by  old  Texan  feuds,  and  waged  between  the  half-savage 

tin-owing  stones ; — the  result  of  which  was,  that  in  a  very  few  minutes 
there  were  ten  dead  Mexicans  lying  in  the  sti'eet,  and  two  men,  badly 
wounded,  taken  to  the  guard-house." 

Another  paper  records  the  following.  "  The  Arco  Iris  says  a  de 
tachment  of  American  soldiers  quartered  at  Medelin,  started  for  a  ball 
in  the  village  about  11  o'clock  at  night.  The  ball  party  took  alarm, 
and  one  of  them  discharged  a  pistol  at  the  advancing  Americans,  who 
returned  the  fire,  killing  seven,  and  wounding  nine,  one  of  whom 
was  a  woman." 

*  30th  Congress.  1st  Session,  Senate,  Ex.  Doc.  No.  52,  p.  347 


]56  MILITARY    EXECUTIONS. 

guerillas  of  Mexico,  and  the  lynch-gangs  of  the  border  and 
hunter  emigrant  population  of  the  Western  and  South  West 
ern  United  States,  whose  conduct  on  their  way  to  the  seat  of 
war,  gave  evidence  to  the  cities  through  Avhich  they  passed, 
what  would  be  the  fulfilment  of  their  career  when  they  were 
poured  into  Mexico.  Beasts  of  prey  are  dangerous  when 
they  are  set  loose.  The  regular  soldier  may  have  a  species 
of  war-conscience,  which  is  better  than  none  at  all.  But 
they  who  go  on  a  human  hunt  for  the  love  of  it,  may  be  ex 
pected  to  dabble  in  blood  even  if  it  be  a  little  out  of  the  reg 
ular  "  orders." 

But  after  crossing  such  streams  of  gore  as  we  have  now 
waded  through,  three  questions  arise  which  we  would  respect 
ively  offer  to  the  consideration  of  both  parties,  the  advocates 
of  war,  and  the  friends  of  peace. 

1.  What  national  right  can  be  redressed  by  an  infinite 
series  of  individual  wrongs  ? 

2.  What  true  glory  can  be  found  in  connection  with  the 
perpetration  of  endless  injuries  and  miseries  ? 

3.  What  "healing  peace,"  to  use  an  official  phrase,  can 
be  cemented  by  a  boundless  expenditure  of  life  and  treasure, 
or  based  on  the  memory  of  ten  thousand  cruelties,  suffer 
ings,  and  wrongs  ? 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

MILITARY    EXECUTIONS. 

"But  gro^v  like  savage?,  —  as  soldiers  will, 

That  nothing  do  but  meditate  oa  blood."  —  SHAKSPEAEE. 

ANOTHER  list  of  the  barbarities  of  the  Mexican  war  in 
cludes  the  punishments  inflicted  upon  deserters  and  other 
criminals.  Manv  who  have  been  moat  strenuous  advocates 


MILITARY    EXECUTIONS.  157 

of  this  war,  are  earnestly  opposed  to  capital  punishment. 
I  hit  i  heir  inconsistency  will  be  apparent  when  it  is  recollect 
ed,  that  probably  more  persons  have  been  shot  and  hung  for 
various  crimes  by  the  American  officers  in  Mexico  during  the 
last  two  years,  than  would  be  capitally  executed  in  the  whole 
United  States  in  the  ordinary  course  of  justice  during  ten 
years.  Some  of  these  executions,  too,  have  been  conducted 
in  a  manner  repulsive  to  every  humane  and  Christian  senti 
ment. 

As  the  American  army  contained  many  Irish,  German;  and 
other  emigrants  from  Europe,  the  Mexican  generals  issued 
proclamations,  and  employed  every  means  in  their  power  to 
entice  away  the  soldiers  from  their  allegiance.  They  offered 
large  bounties  to  deserters,  promising  land  and  money  to 
officers  and  soldiers,  and  giving  the  officers  a  guaranty  that 
they  should  retain  their  former  military  rank. 

These  exertions  were  far  from  being  in  vain,  for  no  sooner 
was  Gen.  Taylor  encamped  on  the  banks  of  the  Rio  Grande, 
than  the  desertions  began,  and  according  to  the  Report  of  the 
Secretary  of  War,  made  to  the  Senate,  April  10,  1848,  the 
enormous  number  of  4,966  men  had  deserted  in  Mexico  from 
the  troops  of  the  United  States.  In  fact,  whole  platoons  in 
some  instances  either  went  over  to  the  enemy,  or  returned 
home.  The  Matamoras  Flag  stated  that  on  Dec.  22,  1847, 
about  25  Texan  Rangers  deserted  at  one  time  from  Saltillo, 
and  came  home.  Other  cases  occurred  of  a  similar  char 
acter. 

To  save  the  army  from  such  disorders,  severe  punishment, 
as  imprisonment,  whipping,  and  other  barbaric  inflictions  were 
resorted  to,  and  a  considerable  number  were  put  to  death  for 
desertion,  murder,  or  other  crimes. 

T.  B.  Thorpe  mentions,  that  two  men  were  shot  in  the  act 
of  desertion  at  Matamoras,  and  that  several  were  drowned 
in  attempting  to  swim  the  river.  Gen.  Taylor,  in  a  letter  to 
the  Department,  dated  May  30,  184G,  confirms  the  account, 

U 


158  MILITARY    EXECUTIONS. 

and  says,  that  soon  afte?  his  "  arrival  on  the  Rio  Grande  the 
evil  of  desertion  made  its  appearance,  and  increased  to  an 
alarming  extent ;"  and  that  verbal  orders  were  given  to  the 
pickets  to  hail  those  w  10  were  swimming  the  river,  and  if 
they  did  not  return,  to  siioot  them  on  the  spot. 

The  Matamoras  Flag  states  that  five  Mexican  guerillas 
were  hanged  Dec.  19,  1847,  in  the  main  plaza  of  Saltillo 
for  the  murder  of  three  discharged  Mississippians  at  Rinco- 
nada  Pass ;  and  that  an  American  named  Neazum  was 
hanged  a  few  days  previously,  for  having  murdered  a  Mexi 
can  in  the  streets  of  the  city. 

The  Chicago  Tribune  records  the  death  of  Lieut.  James  M. 
Stewart,  of  Niles,  Michigan,  who  was  hanged  in  Mexico  for 
having  been  enraged  at  a  superior  officer  who  struck  him, 
and  having  run  him  through  with  his  sword.  It  goes  on  to 
remark,  that  "  an  interesting  family,  consisting  of  a  wife  and 
several  young  children,  are  thus  deprived  of  husband,  father, 
and  protector.  This  is  another  of  the  legitimate  fruits  of 
bloody,  infamous,  brutal,  forever-to-be-detested  war." 

Isaac  Kirk,  a  free  man  of  color,  according  to  Gen.  Scott's 
Reports  of  April,  1847,  was  hung  at  Vera  Cruz  for  k<  com 
mitting  or  attempting  to  commit  a  rape "  upon  a  Mexican 
woman  ;  and  in  an  Address  to  the  Mexican  people,  he  appeals 
and  says,  "  is  this  not  a  proof  of  good  faith  and  energetic 
discipline  ?  " 

Two  young  Mexicans  of  rank  and  refinement  were  exe 
cuted  Nov.  24,  1847,  in  the  city  of  Jalapa. 

The  Vera  Cruz  Indicator  has  the  following  account  of 
the  affair :  — 

'•  Gen.  Patterson,  while  in  Jalapa,  governed  with  a  rigid 
hand.  The  Mexicans  complain  bitterly  of  the  recent  execu 
tion,  under  his  directions,  of  two  young  officers,  Ambrosio 
Alcalde  and  Antonio  Garcia,  who  were  taken  at  Jalconumco 
with  a  party  of  guerillas,  some  time  since,  and  who  were 
alleged  to  have  broken  their  parole.  This  the  two  officers 


MILITARY    EXECUTIONS.  159 

and  their  friends  denied,  but  the  evidence  was  too  strong 
against  them  to  permit  tlieir  escape. 

"  When  the  sentence  was  published,  the  whole  city  rose  to 
beg  for  the  lives  of  the  young  men,  and  deputations  were  sent 
to  Gen.  Patterson  from  the  council,  from  the  resident  for 
eigners,  from  the  clergy,  regular  and  secular,  from  the  ladies 
of  the  principal  families,  and  the  ladies  of  the  convents,  be 
seeching  him  to  spare  the  lives  of  the  unhappy  youths,  but 
without  avail.  They  were  hanged  in  the  Plazuela  de  San 
Jose  at  noon  of  the  2 1th  ultimo.  Their  bodies  were  delivered 
over  to  tlieir  friends,  and  after  lying  in  state  a  few  hours, 
were  buried  with  the  highest  honors  that  public  grief  could 
devise.  The  whole  city  put  on  mourning,  solemn  proces 
sions  lined  every  street,  and  the  miserere  was  chanted  in  the 
churches.  A  gloom  was  thrown  over  the  city  which  is  not 
yet  dissipated." 

The  Arco  Iris,  says  that  "  Gen.  Patterson's  division  left 
Jalapa  on  the  25th  ult.  Before  his  departure,  he  hanged, 
on  the  23d,  two  American  teamsters,  for  having  killed  a 
Mexican  boy  twelve  years  old." 

Reynolds,  an  American  soldier  of  the  8th  Regiment  of 
Infantry,  was  hanged  at  Jalapa  on  Dec.  29,  1847,  for  the 
murder  of  some  Mexican  women. 

The  National  Intelligencer  recorded  the  execution  at  Sal- 
tillo  on  Dec.  28, 1847,  of  Victor  Galbraith,  a  bugler  in  Capt. 
Miers'  company  of  volunteer  cavalry,  who  was  shot  for 
threatening  the  captain's  life. 

But  the  most  cruel  and  sanguinary  scene  that  was  proba 
bly  ever  enacted  in  war  under  the  form  of  its  Draconic  code 
of  laws,  occurred  at  the  villages  of  San  Angel  and  Mixcoac 
in  the  valley  of  Mexico.  On  the  9th  of  September,  1847, 
16  deserters  were  hanged  at  San  Angel,  and  on  the  10th,  4 
were  hanged  at  Mixcoac.  But  as  if  these  victims  were  not 
enough  to  glut  the  cruel  spirit  of  war,  on  the  loth,  30  more 
were  hanged  at  Mixcoac,  making  in  all  50  victims  of  capital 


160  MILITARY    EXECUTIONS. 

punishment  in  four  days.  Without  crediting  the  Mexican 
account  that  they  were  noosed  by  the  neck  and  drawn  up, 
and  that  they  died  by  inches  by  being  strangled  with  their 
own  weight,  their  agony  lasting  more  than  an  hour ;  it  is 
nevertheless  an  unquestioned  fact,  that,  in  the  last  case  of 
execution,  the  poor  wretches,  in  order  to  slake  the  thirst  of 
vengeance,  and  "to  associate  with  the  glory  of  their  regiments 
the  gloom  of  their  tribunals,"  were  pinioned,  ropes  put  around 
their  necks,  and  each  man  placed  under  a  gallows,  and  there 
made  to  wait  nearly  two  hours,  with  death  staring  them  in  the 
face,  until,  according  to  the  declaration  and  promise  of  the 
presiding  officer,  a  colonel,  whose  name  shall  not  pass  our 
pen,  the  neighboring  heights  of  Chapultepec,  then  assaulted 
by  the  American  troops,  Avere  carried ;  and  that  when  the 
American  flag  was  planted  on  that  fortress,  thirty  men  were  in 
stantly  launched  into  eternity !  We  ask  why  have  not  the 
official  reports  of  these  transactions  been  published,  with  the 
other  numerous  documents  of  the  war,  if  they  are  not  too 
black  and  odious  to  bear  the  light  of  day,  and  the  free  judg 
ment  of  a  people,  professing  to  be  governed  by  the  humane 
spirit  of  Christianity  ? 

The  rest  of  this  battalion  of  San  Patricio,*  under  the 
command  of  Reilly,  who  were  captured  when  desperately 
fighting  at  Contreras  and  Churubusco  against  the  Americans, 
were  severely  punished;  some  by  being  "whipped  with  fifty 
lashes  each,  the  letter  D.  for  deserter  being  branded  with  a 
red  hot  iron  upon  the  cheek,  and  then  condemned  to  wear  an 
iron  yoke  weighing  eight  pounds,  with  three  prongs,  each  one 
foot  in  length  around  the  neck ;  to  be  confined  at  hard  labor 

*  Nativity  of  the  Deserters.  —  The  J^ew  York  Police  Gazette  con 
tains  "  the  names  and  places  of  nativity  of  the  deserters  recently  recap 
tured  by  our  army,  from  which  we  are  sorry  to  learn  that  a  large  por 
tion  were  Americans.  They  are  classed  as  follows  :  Americans  54, 
Irishmen  34,  Germans  17,  Scotch  4,  and  one  each  from  England.  Nova 
Scotia.  France  and  Poland." 


MILITARY    EXECUTIONS.  1G1 

in  charge  of  the  guard  during  the  time  the  army  should  re 
main  in  Mexico,  and  then  to  have  their  heads  shaved,  and  to 
be  drummed  out  of  the  service;"  and  others  were  flogged 
with  200  lashes  each,  after  being  compelled  to  dig  the  graves 
of  their  companions,  who  were  executed. 

Several  others,  both  officers  and  soldiers,  by  the  names  of 
Hare,  Dutton,  Madson,  Wragg,  Stewart,  Wall,  and  others, 
were  convicted  at  Mexico  of  burglary  and  murder,  after  the 
city  was  occupied  by  Scott,  and  sentenced  to  be  hanged,  but 
they  were  afterwards  respited,  or  wholly  pardoned. 

Huxton,  in  his  "Adventures  in  Mexico,"  p.  230,  says, 
in  reference  to  the  revolution  in  New  Mexico,  Jan.,  1847, 
that  "the  troops  marched  out  of  Santa  Fe,  attacked  their 
pueblo,  and  leveled  it  to  the  ground,  killing  many  hundreds 
of  its  defenders,  and  taking  many  prisoners,  most  of  whom 
were  hanged."  Another  account?  states,  that  "  fifteen  Mexi 
cans  were  executed  as  conspirators." 

One  man  was  executed  at  the  town  of  Santa  Cruz  on  Mon 
terey  Bay,  in  California. 

We  record  then  in  all,  82  Americans  and  Mexicans, 
who  were  shot  or  hanged  by  the  martial  law,  by  the 
Americans,  —  and  we  probably  have  not  ascertained  all, 
—  an  amount  of  capital  punishment,  small  indeed  by 
the  side  of  the  wholesale  slaughter  of  the  battle-field,  but 
worthy  of  being  considered  by  those  who  are  strenuous  advo 
cates  of  the  repeal  of  the  death-penalty,  for  it  is,  as  we  have 
said,  a  greater  number  than  would  suffer  thus  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  criminal  justice  in  ten  years  in  the  United  States. 
14* 


162  ILLEGALITIES. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

ILLEGALITIES. 

l~  Laws  are  silent  in  war." —  CICERO. 

IT  has  already  been  strongly  intimated,  if  not  declared  in  so 
many  words,  that  the  laws  of  nations,  and  the  constitution  and 
laws  of  our  own  country,  have  been  repeatedly  and  flagrantly 
broken  in  the  war  with  Mexico.  But  in  order  to  set  this 
subject  in  a  more  vivid  light,  we  propose  to  devote  this  chap 
ter,  if  not  the  most  important,  at  least  one  of  the  most 
curious,  in  the  history  of  the  day,  to  the  various  illegalities 
which  have  been  committed.  Other  portions  of  this  review 
will  sufficiently  demonstrate  the  opposition  of  the  war  to 
every  principle  of  liberty  and  Christianity,  but  it  will  be  the 
aim  of  these  few  pages  to  elucidate  its  equal  antagonism  to  the 
laws  of  man.  and  to  show  that  when  even  a  civilized  people 
burst  through  the  enclosures  of  truth  and  right,  they  mani 
fest  in  many  respects  the  same  reckless  disregard  of  human 
statutes  and  constitutions,  as  is  thought  to  belong  to  earlier 
stages  of  society. 

Numerous  unlawful  acts  preceded  the  war.  The  con 
quest  of  Mexican  territory  by  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
with  the  connivance,  if  not  the  aid,  of  the  national  and  State 
government,  was  contrary  to  the  law  of  nations.  The  seiz 
ure  of  Monterey,  in  California,  Oct.  19,  1842,  by  Commo 
dore  Jones,  was  a  lawless  act.  disavowed  indeed  by  the 
Government,  but  the  perpetrator  was  never  punished.  The 
annexation  of  Texas,  by  a  joint  resolution,  was  contrary  to 


ILLEGALITIES.  1G3 

our  treaty  with  Mexico,  to  the  comity  of  nations,  and  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

The  act  of  war  at  first  was  illegal.  It  was  a  violation  of 
the  law  of  nations  to  enter  a  disputed  territory,  ar.d  hold  it 
bv  force  of  arms,  when  it  was  fully  conceded  that  it  was 
debatable  ground,  and  when  we  had  recognized  Mexican 
custom-houses  within  the  year  in  that  same  territory  by 
specific  acts  of  Congress.  Detailed  proofs  and  illustrations 
of  this  point  are  contained  in  chapter  seventh,  and  need  not 
be  recounted. 

The  origin  of  the  war  also  was  contrary  to  the  C3nstitu- 
tion  of  the  United  States.  By  this  instrument  it  is  reserved 
to  Congress  "  to  declare  war,  repel  invasions."  lut  by  a 
vote  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  Jan  3,  1843,  it  was 
resolved,  that  the  war  with  Mexico  "  was  unnecessarily  and 
unconstitutionally  begun  by  the  President  of  tne  United 
States  ;"  and  distinguished  statesmen  deliberately  expressed 
their  opinion,  that  he  had  brought  himself  witnin  the  peril 
of  an  impeachment.  Mr.  Calhoun  said  h  the  Senate, 
March  17,  1843,  "I  hold  that  the  President  had  no  more 
right  to  order  the  army  to  march  into  the  disputed  territory, 
than  he  had  to  order  it  to  march  into  Mexico.* 

The  difficulties  with  Mexico  were  not  brought  before 
Congress,  although  then  in  session,  until  Gen.  Taylor  had 
commenced  hostilities  ;  and  when  the  question  was  presented 
by  an  Executive  Message,  it  was  hurried  to  a  decision  in  a 
surprise  and  panic,  without  the  documents  appended  to  it 
being  allowed  to  be  even  read,  and  without  any  proper  de 
bate  or  deliberation. 

The  object  of  the  war  was  an  illegal  and  unconstitutional 
one.  There  are  provisions  in  the  Constitution  to  repel  inva 
sions,  but  not  to  make  them.  Far  as  heaven  is  from  earth, 
was  the  thought  of  the  framers  of  that  instrument  from  sanc- 


•-• 


*  Printed  speech,  p.  16. 


164  ILLEGALITIES. 

tioning  by  one  syllable  of  theirs  the  spirit  of  conquest.  Be 
sides,  liberty  is  the  spirit  of  that  great  charter,  and  a  war  to 
extend  slavery,  the  slave-trade,  and  the  political  power  of 
slavery,  clashes  with  the  genius  of  Independence.  What  is 
its  preamble  ?  "  We,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in 
order  to  form  a  more  perfect  union,  establish  justice,  ensure 
domestic  tranquillity,  provide  for  the  common  defence,  pro 
mote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to 
ourselves  and  our  posterity,  do  ordain  and  establish  this  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States  of  America." 

The  progress  of  the  war  was  attended  by  many  pro 
ceedings  as  much  at  -variance  with  the  laws  of  man  as 
the  laws  of  God.  For  the  details  we  refer  to  other  chap 
ters  of  tkis  work.  The  expedition  of  Fremont  into  Cali 
fornia,  in  1845  and  1846,  was  palpably  unjustifiable,  and 
its  purpose  but  very  thinly  disguised.  The  absolution  by 
Gen.  Kearney  of  the  inhabitants  of  New  Mexico  and 
California,  from  their  allegiance  to  Mexico,  his  compelling 
the  native  officers  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
United  States,*  and  the  execution  as  traitors  by  other  com 
manders  of  those  who  rose  and  attempted  to  destroy  their 
invaders,  and  shake  off  their  control,  were  deeds  that  find  no 
justification  in  the  recognized  laws  of  nations,  however  sanc 
tioned  by  the  bloody  code  of  Mars.  Many  other  illegitimate 
barbarities  of  the  war  are  recounted  in  chapter  thirteenth. 

The  introduction  from  abroad  into  Mexico,  while  the  war 
was  waging,  by  a  written  passport  of  the  Executive,  of  the 
greatest  General  that  country  could  boast,  in  the  person  of 
Santa  Anna,  who  immediately  placed  himself  at  the  head  of 
large  armies,  and  caused  an  immense  loss  of  life  and  trea 
sure  to  the  Americans,  was  palpably  against  the  rule  for 
bidding  to  "  give  aid  and  comfort"  to  the  enemies  of  our 
country,  though  the  intention  no  doubt  was  to  secure  an 

*  30th  Congress,  1st  Session,  Ex.  Doc.  No.  41,  pp.  27,  28. 


ILLEGALITIES.  165 

earlier  peace,  and  tlie  cession  of  the  territories  which  were 
coveted. 

The  annexation  of  the  territories  ot  New  Mexico  and 
California,  by  General  Kearney  and  Jommodore  Stockton 
to  the  United  States,  before  any  treaty  of  peace  had  been 
made,  and  before  Congress  had  passed  any  act  to  that  effect, 
were  high-handed  violations  of  the  Constitution,  and  also  of 
the  law  of  nations.  They  were  too  gross  to  be  owned  as 
acts  of  the  Government  even  in  this  history  of  illegalities, 
and,  like  not  a  few  of  the  other  measures  of  the  command 
ing  officers  in  Mexico,  were  condemned  at  Washington.* 

The  establishment  in  Mexico  of  a  system  of  tariffs  and 
taxes  by  the  dictation  of-the  Executive  of  the  United  States, 
without  any  sanction  or  cooperation  on  the  part  of  the 
popular  branch  of  Government,  f  the  appropriation  of  the 
moneys  thus  collected  to  whatever  uses  the  Executive 
thought  best,  and  the  appointment  under  such  a  scheme  of  a 
multitude  of  custom-house  officers  and  pay-masters,  were 
measures  declared  both  by  Mr.  Calhoun  and  Mr.  Webster, 
to  be  invasions  of  the  laws  and  constitution  of  the  United 
States. 

The  dangerous  march  of  Executive  Power  was  further 


'*•  30th  Congress,  1st  Session,  House  of  Representatives,  Doc.  No. 
GO,  p.  150  :  30th  Congress,  1st  Session,  Senate,  Ex.  Doc.  No.  33,  p.  410. 

t  •'  6.  On  the  failure  of  any  State  to  pay  its  assessments,  its  function 
aries,  as  above,  will  be  seized  and  imprisoned,  and  their  property  seized, 
registered,  reported,  and  converted  to  the  use  of  occupation,  in  strict  accord 
ance  to  the  general  regulations  of  this  army.  No  resignation  or  abdi 
cation  of  office  by  any  of  the  said  Mexican  functionaries  shall  excuse 
one  of  them  from  any  of  the  above  obligations  or  penalties."  See  also 
Art.  3,  30th  Congress,  1st  Session,  Ex.  Doc.  No.  60,  p.  1064.  It  would 
have  been  a  very  natural  mistake  if  we  supposed  we  had  alighted  on 
one  of  the  military  laws  of  Santa  Anna,  or  some  other  chieftain,  in  the 
above  severe  enactment,  not  that  it  was  in  very  truth  a  regulation  of 
one  of  those  Generals  who  came  professing  to  fre&  the  poor  Mexicans  from 
military  tyrants  ! 


166  ILLEGALITIES. 

manifested  by  the  creation  of  civil  governments,  the  appoint 
ing  of  the  variow  officers,  magistrates,  and  judges,  neces 
sary  to  carry  them  tn,  and  the  allotment  of  their  duties  and 
salaries,  without  any  reference  to  the  authority  of  Congress, 
or  any  appeal  to  its  judgment,  any  more  than  if  that  body 
had  been  non-existent. 

The  conclusion  of  ftie  war  was  also  in  harmony  with  its 
commencement,  object,  and  progress,  tainted  with  the  same 
disregard  of  forms  and  riles  of  law.  Mr.  Trist  had  been 
recalled  by  the  power  which  appointed  him  as  confidential 
commissioner  to  negotiate  a  peace,  but  he  chose  still  to  re 
main  in  Mexico  on  his  own  responsibility  ;  and  the  plenipo 
tentiaries  of  that  nation,  with  a  knowledge  of  that  fact,  did 
not  hesitate  to  conclude  a  treaty  with  him.*  The  record  of 
his  name,  therefore,  as  an  officer  of  the  United  States,  on 
that  document,  was  not  in  accordance  with  the  fact  of  the 
case. 

The  commissioners,  Messrs  Clifford  and  Sevier,  conveyed 
the  treaty  of  peace,  as  amended  by  the  Senate,  to  Mexico,  to 
procure  its  ratification  by  the  Government  of  that  country. 
The  changes  made  by  the  Senate,  we/o  the  substitution  of 
the  third  article  of  the  treaty  of  Louisiana  in  the  place  of 
the  ninth  article  of  this  treaty,  relative  to  the  rights  of  Mex 
icans  in  the  annexed  territories ;  the  entire  suppression  of 
the  tenth  article,  relative  to  Mexican  grants  in  the  terri 
tories,  and  the  alteration  of  the  twelfth  article,  relative  to  the 
mode  of  payment  by  the  United  States  of  $15,000,000  to 
Mexico.  The  Mexican  Government  refused  to  ratify  the 
treaty  until  the  American  commissioners  had  signed  a  pro 
tocol,  declaring  that  no  essential  changes  had  been  made,  and 
explaining  the  ground  of  the  several  amendments.*  The 
protocol  was,  however,  regarded  by  many  in  Congress  as 

*  30th  Congress,  1st  Session,  Senate,  Ex.  Doc.  No.  52,  pp.  5,  38  ; 
30th.  Congress,  2nd  Session,  House  of  Representatives,  Ex.  Doc.  No. 
50.  p.  11,  et  passim. 


ILLEGALITIES.  167 

virtually  involving  a  new  agreement  on  the  part  of  the 
United  States,  and  its  concealment  by  the  Executive  for 
nearly  a  year  from  the  knowledge  of  Congress,  was  deemed 
another  specimen  of  illegal  and  unconstitutional  proceeding. 
We  have  thus  baldly  and  briefly  indicated  some  of  the 
gross  and  generally-conceded  illegalities  which  have  charac 
terized  the  war.  Monarchies  may  trample  upon  the  laws, 
and  live,  because  they  are  based  upon  might.  Republics 
may  trample  upon  their  constitutions,  but  they  will  die.  be 
cause  they  are  founded  upon  right.  The  only  loyalty  pos 
sible  in  our  country,  is  a  loyalty  to  the  Constitution  and 
laws,  always  coupled  with  the  liberty  to  amend  them  and 
square  them  by  the  laws  of  God,  and  when  that  sense  of 
allegiance  is  gone,  the  sheet-anchor  of  the  republic  parts  in 
twain.  The  laws  of  the  land  are  not  the  perfect  expression 
of  the  supreme  right  and  truth.  But  they  are  the  highest 
yet  seen  and  realized  by  the  mass  of  the  people ;  and  to  lift 
a  violent  hand  against  them,  to  violate  them  with  impunity, 
is  to  weaken  the  sole  restraints  that  remain  to  hold  in  check 
the  turbulent  forces  of  the  country.  We  are  admonished  by 
mobs  in  our  Atlantic  cities,  and  Mormon  wars  and  lynchings 
in  our  western  borders,  and  by  the  new  plans  of  military  ad 
venture  coming  to  light,  hatched  by  this  war,  that  this  is  no 
period  in  the  history  of  our  republic  to  relax,  by  word  or 
deed,  the  sacred  bonds  of  the  Constitution  and  the  laws. 


168          POLITICAL    EVILS    OF   THE   WAR   AT   HOilE. 


CHAPTER    XV. 

POLITICAL    EVILS    OF    THE    WAR    AT   HOME. 

"  Of  all  the  enemies  of  public  liberty  war  is  perhaps  the  most  to  be 
dreaded.  It  is  the  parent  of  armies;  from  these  proceed  debts  and 
taxes ;  and  armies,  and  debts,  and  taxes,  are  the  well-known  instru 
ments  for  bringing  the  many  under  the  dominion  of  the  few.  War  is 

the  true  nurse  of  executive  aggrandizement. No  nation  could 

preserve  its  freedom  in  the  midst  of  continued  warfare.     Those  truths 
are  well  established."  —  MADISON. 

THE  science  of  politics,  wisely  viewed,  is  a  great  and  a 
good  science.  It  highly  concerns  the  welfare  of  states  and 
nations.  Its  principles  are  noble  when  they  are  drawn  from 
the  laws  of  God.  And  the  art  of  government,  or  the  carry 
ing  out  and  realization  of  these  lofty  principles,  is  a  glorious 
art.  Politics,  whether  as  an  art  or  a  science,  have  fallen  into 
low  esteem  with  many  sensible  people,  simply  on  account  of 
the  chicanery  of  politicians,  and  not  because  the  work  of 
organizing  and  governing  mankind  is  not  in  itself  of  the 
highest  dignity  and  moment. 

And  if  these  declarations  hold  good  of  politics  and  govern 
ment  in  general,  then  are  they  doubly  true  of  the  science 
and  administration  of  republican  institutions.  For  here  gov 
ernment  exists  and  is  moulded  by  the  consent  and  will  of 
the  governed.  Castes,  conventional  ideas  and  arrangements 
give  way  before  simpler  and  truer  views  of  man's  relation  to 
man.  Freedom  is  but  one  of  the  deep  seminal  principles  of 
republican  and  Christian  politics.  Duties  require  to  be  con 
sidered  as  well  as  rights.  Mutual  help  is  as  essential  as 
personal  independence.  Love  must  be  the  vital  air  of  a  self- 


POLITICAL    EVILS    OF    THE    WAR    AT    HOME.          169 

governing  community.  And  he  who,  possessed  and  quick 
ened  himself  by  these  life-giving  sentiments,  seeks  by  act 
and  word,  seeks  above  all  by  the  just  and  benevolent  conduct 
of  public  affairs,  to  diffuse  them  abroad  and  impress  them  on 
the  heart  of  a  whole  nation,  and  give  a  high-toned  moral 
character  to  its  history  and  destiny,  occupies  the  position  of 
an  archangel  for  doing  good,  —  wide  and  lasting  good  to  his 
race. 

It  is  when  we  have  taken  this  more  elevated  and  compre 
hensive  view  of  the  real  grandeur  of  human  government, 
when  rightly  administered,  that  we  descend  to  the  considera 
tion  of  such  a  chapter  in  our  national  career,  as  that  of  the 
Mexican  war,  with  the  most  loathing  and  repugnance.  We 
think  no  event  has  ever  occurred,  since  the  establishment  of. 
the  Federal  constitution,  so  ominous  to  the  prospects  of  our 
country  in  particular,  or  free  institutions  in  general,  as  this 
invasion.  Not  that  we  despair  of  the  republic.  Not  that 
we  have  lost  one  jot  of  our  faith  in  the  capability  of  man  for 
republican  governments.  Not  that  we  see  any  immediate 
signs  of  the  overthrow  of  any  one  of  our  chartered  and  con 
stitutional  rights  and  privileges.  But  we  are  taught  by  an 
impressive  and  tremendous  example,  that  republics  may, 
under  all  the  forms  of  freedom,  full-blown  and  flourishing, 
do  deeds,  incur  responsibilities,  hazard  evils,  and  inflict  inju 
ries,  at  which  any  old  barbaric  monarchy  might  well  stand 
aghast.  Still  more  pungently  has  the  solemn  lesion  been 
thrilled  through  our  hearts,  that  if  we  would  have  a  country 
worth  the  name  of  Liberty  and  the  love  and  service  of  free 
men,  if  we  would  save  the  name.  —  republic,  —  from  becom 
ing  a  hissing  and  a  scorn  in  the  earth,  and  if  we  would  res 
cue  this  gigantic  empire  of  the  West  from  sinking  into  the 
Babylon  of  the  nations,  we  need  to  ply  in  season  and  out  of 
season,  with  all  our  characteristic  energy  as  a  people,  the 
means  of  intellectual,  social,  and  religious  life,  the  school, 
the  press,  and  the  church,  in  all  their  purity  and  power. 

15 


170          POLITICAL    EVILS    OF    THE    WAR   AT   HO1IE, 

Our  single  trust  and  hope  are  in  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christr 
to  save  us  as  a  heritage  of  freedom,  from  destruction,  or 
from  a  warlike,  Roman  ambition,  worse  than  destruction. 
This  and  this  only  can  clarify  the  intellect,  exalt  the  aims, 
chasten  the  passions,  and:  sanctify  the  career  of  a  mighty 
people,  bursting  away  in  their  untamable  energies  from  all 
the  revered  landmarks  of  the  past,  and  seemingly  taking 
counsel  chiefly  of  their  own  impassioned  youth.  But  God 
works  by  human  agencies.  And  this  Gospel,  divine  as  it  is 
in  its  source,  and  competent  as  it  is  as  an  illuminator  and 
Mentor,  needs  to  be  sent  abroad  as  freely  as  the  flowing 
waters,  and  the  sweeping  breezes,  to  reach,  and  elevate,  and 
eave  the  millions  of  the  ignorant,  the  superstitious,  the  de 
praved,  and  the  young,  throughout  our  land. 

With  these,  and  similar  connected  views  of  the  value  of 
Christian  politics,  we  approach  the  subject  of  the  political 
character  and  issues  of  this  conquest,  and  we  would  consider 
it  not  for  one  moment  as  partisans,  for  such  we  are  not,  but 
as  calm  and  impartial  patriots,  without  reference  to  parties. 
Indeed,  in  the  very  matter  of  this  war,  so  far  as  parties  had 
anything  to  do  with  it,  and  any  guilt  rests  upon  its  planners 
and  actors,  we  see  both  the  great  parties  involved  more  or 
less  in  carrying  it  on ;  we  shall  not  stop  in  this  Review 
to  ask,  which  was  more,  and  which  was  less.  Both  parties 
voted  men  and  money.  Both  parties  fought  its  battles.  Both 
parties  talked  of  the  glory  gained  by  the  victories.  Both 
parties  have  brought  home  candidates  for  the  highest  national 
offices  and  honors  from  its  red  fields.  Both  parties  have,  we 
believe,  to  a  considerable  extent  given  their  sanction  to  this 
conflict,  and  endorsed  its  effects  ;  while  in  both- parties  have 
been  found  its  earnest  denouncers,  in  its  inception,  its  pro 
gress,  and  its  results ;  witness  the  words  of  the  great  states 
man  of  New  England  and  those  of  the  great  statesman  of 
the  South ;  both  eminent  leaders  of  their  respective  parties. 
We  choose  then  to  regard  this  war  as  the  act  of  the  country. 


POLITICAL    EVILS    OF    THE    WAR    AT    HOME.  171 

and  not  the  act  of  any  party.  As  such  we  review  it,  criticize 
it,  and  condemn  it.  The  nation's  mind  must  have  been  par 
tially  clouded,  and  the  nation's  soul  must  have  been  tempo 
rarily  hardened,  to  declare  hostilities  and  carry  out  this  giant 
system  of  evil  during  two  long  years.  At  whatever  point, 
or  in  whatever  person  or  persons,  the  evil  came  to  a  head, 
the  evil  itself  must  have  widely  permeated  the  veins  of  the 
whole  republic.  No  single  act  could  have  brought  on  the 
crisis,  had  there  not  been  a  general  war-spirit  smouldering 
deeply  in  multitudes  of  hearts,  entirely  irrespective  of  all 
parties,  which  only  needed  one  breath  of  the  bellows  to  blow 
it  into  a  flame. 

We  think  it  better  to  attribute  much  of  such  movements 
in  human  affairs  to  the  public  sentiment  that  is  behind  all 
the  forms  of  law,  and  that  is  mightier  than  the  throne  itself. 
We  prefer  to  take  much  of  the  guilt  of  this  and  like  deeds 
to  ourselves,  and  to  remember,  that  if  we  have  not  approved 
of  the  precise  thing  in  question,  we  have  probably  approved 
of  much  which  may  have  been  instrumental  of  leading  to 
such  a  catastrophe.  We  have  all  drank  too  much  of  the 
belligerent  spirit. 

The  demon  of  war  has  not  yet  been  exorcised  out  of  the 
heart  of  Christendom.  We  do  much  to  prepare  for  war. 
We  educate  our  youth  in  war-history  and  war-poetry.  We 
honor  the  soldier's  calling,  as  a  calling.  We  spend  in  time 
of  profound  peace  more  for  war  than  we  do  for  peace.  We 
encourage  military  education,  reviews,  drills,  musters.  We 
manufacture  myriads  of  arms.  We  put  a  musket  in  every 
house,  and  a  sword  in  every  hand.  We  stud  our  ports  with 
grim  war-ships,  and  encamp  our  militia  in  every  village.  And 
it  is  not  in  human  nature  to  be  thus  always  and  expressly 
and  enthusiastically  preparing  for  a  thing,  and  never  doing 
the  thing  itself.  Some  militia  may  be  necessary  as  a  police, 
though  they  often  occasion  more  riots  than  they  suppress. 
But  the  boundless  preparation*  everywhere  made  in  all 


172          POLITICAL    EVILS    OF    THE   WAR   AT   HOME. 

civilized  countries  for  war,  unquestionably  do  much  to  pre 
cipitate  international  conflicts.  Men  who  have  been  learning 
the  art  of  destruction  all  their  days,  will  occasionally  seek 
and  create  the  opportunities  to  reduce  their  art  to  practice. 
lie  who  goes  armed  with  a  bowie-knife,  will  be  likely  some 
times  to  use  it. 

We  proceed  now,  after  these  preliminaries,  to  consider 
some  of  the  political  evils  which  have  resulted  from  the  event 
in  question. 

And  in  view  of  these  evils,  and  of  others  which  time  may 
yet  develop,  we  honor  the  fearless  resistance,  and  the  pro 
phetic  sagacity,  with  which  the  great  statesman  of  South 
Carolina,  in  company  with  others,  plead  for  deliberation, 
when  the  nation  were  about  embarking  precipitately  in  the 
war. 

"  In  the  present  condition  of  the  world,"  he  said,  "  war 
was  a  tremendous  thing.  The  whole  sentiment  of  the  civ 
ilized  world  was  turning  stronger  and  stronger  against 
war.  And  let  us  not,  for  the  honor  of  our  country,  —  for 
the  dignity  of  the  republic,  be  the  first  to  create  a  state  of 
war.  Mortal  man  cannot  see  the  end  of  it.  When  I  look 
and  see  that  we  are  rushing  upon  this  most  tremendous  event, 
I  am  amazed.  I  am  more  than  amazed,  —  I  am  in  a  state 
of  wonder  and  deep  alarm." 

One  of  the  principal  justifications  of  this  warfare  against 
our  neighbors  was  the  alleged  vindication  of  the  national 
honor.  We  had  been  injured  by  Mexico,  and  we  must  return 
injury  for  injury.  We  must  show  that  we  would  not  be 
maltreated  with  impunity.  We  must  demonstrate  by  the 
glory  of  our  arms  that  republican  institutions  could  do  as 
much,  as  those  of  a  monarchy,  to  render  us  formidable  in 
war.  Such  in  brief  was  the  argument.  But  we  propose  to 
suggest,  that  instead  of  "  covering  ov  rselves  with  glory,"  as 
the  military  phrase  runs,  we  have  contracted  a  serious  re 
proach  among  the  nations,  ami  lowered  instead  of  raising, 
tte  true  reputation  of  the  United  States,  a?  a  republic. 


POLITICAL    EVILS    OF    THE    WAR    AT    HOME.  173 

We  are  far  from  denying  that  the  words,  "  national  honor  " 
are  words  of  pith  and  moment.  Though  often  used  pro 
fanely,  they  have  a  sacred  significance.  They  are  capable 
of  making  the  heart  beat  quicker,  and  of  rousing  in  the  true 
man  a  noble  thrill  of  sentiment,  True  national  honor  is 
worth  everything.  It  is  the  national  soul,  the  pulse  of  the 
mighty  national  heart.  Who  is  willing  to  live  in  national 
disgrace,  and  to  be  ashamed  when  he  is  abroad  among  the 
nations,  to  have  it  known  that  he  came  from  such  a  place,  or 
that  he  is  the  citizen  of  such  a  land  ?  Who  of  any  country, 
though  he  be  an  Icelander,  or  a  Kamtschatkan,  but  takes  an 
honest  and  an  honorable  pride  in  the  land  that  gave  him 
birth?  And  that  land,  though  it  be  the  frozen  north,  or  the 
desert  south,  who  does  not  glory,  if  he  can  call  it  his  own, 
his  native  land,  in  its  being  kept  untarnished  in  fame  ?  Such 
is  the  feeling  of  all  men,  savage  and  civilized. 

But  men  misjudge.  They  do  not  see  what  true  national 
honor  is.  They  think  it  is  territory,  or  wealth,  or  armies,  or 
success  in  war  or  diplomacy,  or  some  other  factitious  thing. 
But  it  is  a  great  error.  The  noble  and  honorable  nations  of 
antiquity,  as  they  now  stand  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  were 
the  just  and  upright  and  pacific  nations.  Their  glitter  and 
gold  have  all  perished.  But  all  that  they  did  of  the  True, 
and  Good,  and  Just,  and  Beautiful,  now  lives  in  eternal 
remembrance  on  the  breathing  canvas,  and  the  imperishable 
marble,  in  song  and  never-dying  history.  The  gross  and 
sensual,  and  rich  and  extended  empires  of  the  old  world  have 
rotted  out  of  the  record  of  mankind,  for  they  did  little  worth 
preserving.  While  a  magnanimous  act  in  the  humblest  town 
or  city  has  survived,  and  is  borne  on  the  wings  of  fame  all 
over  the  earth.  There  is  a  retribution  in  history. 

Much  is  said  of  national  honor.  But  what  is  highly 
esteemed  among  men  is  abomination  with  God.  If  we  would 
seek  the  true  honor  of  our  own  country,  we  shall  use  our 
influence  to  carry  out  the  principles  and  ideas  of  Free  Insti- 

15* 


174          POLITICAL    EVILS    OF    THE    WAR    AT    HOME. 

tutions  to  their  full  extent.  We  shall  frown  upon  all  attempts 
to  cast  down  those  glorious  principles  and  ideas  to  the  base 
and  vulgar  glory  of  ages  of  barbarism.  It  is  no  honor  to  us 
that  we  have  three  millions  of  slaves.  It  is  no  honor  to  us 
that  we,  the  stronger  republic,  and  one  that  can  afford  to  be 
generous,  should  make  war  upon  the  weaker  one.  It  is  no 
honor  to  us  to  grasp  the  whole  continent,  when  we  find  it  a 
sufficient  work  to  take  care  of  what  we  have.  But  so  far  as 
we  do  what  is  just,  pay  our  own  debts,  live  in  peace  with  our 
neighbors,  give  the  poor  Indian  and  African  their  due,  carry 
forward  education  and  morality,  and  enterprise  in  every  direc 
tion,  and  at  once  civilize  and  Christianize  our  vast  popula 
tion,  we  are  on  the  high  road  to  honor,  and  shall  live  on  the 
brightest  pages  of  history.  So  may  it  be,  should  be  the 
prayer  of  every  true  American. 

But  the  whole  war-system  of  the  civilized  countries  is 
false  and  dishonorable.  War  is  for  savages,  not  for  citizens, 
gentlemen,  and  Christians..  Its  direct  effect,  as  far  as  it  goes, 
is  to  carry  back  civilization  some  degrees  towards  barbarism. 
It  is  the  animal  in  man,  triumphing  over  the  human.  It  is 
an  appeal  to  force,  not  to  right.  It  is  poor  policy,  as  well  as 
bad  morality.  It  generally  loses  in  the  end  more  than  it 
gains.  It  may  gain  notoriety,  but  it  destroys  true  renown. 
It  may  conquer  new  lands,  but  it  wrecks  character.  It  is 
antagonistical  to  Christianity,  and  therefore  it  must  be  false 
and  wrong,  and  in  the  end  evil,  and  evil  continually. 

We  have  not  been  able  to  see,  thus  far,  much  difference 
between  this  and  most  other  wars.  It  probably  had  as 
much  cause  to  excuse  its  origin,  it  has  been  as  well  con 
ducted,  it  has  had  as  good  a  close,  as  most  other  wars.  We 
believe  it  is  unjust,  that  it  had  no  adequate  reason  to  justify 
it.  We  believe  it  is  a  disgrace,  and  not  an  honor,  to  the 
American  name.  We  believe  that  its  victories  are  not  glo 
ries,  and  that  its  results  will  not  be  blessings.  We  know 
that  the  conscience  of  the  civilized  world,  and  the  sympathy 


POLITICAL    EVILS    OP    THE    WAR    AT    HOME.          175 

of  Christendom,  are  against  us,  as  they  always  are  against 
the  powerful  in  their  contests  with  the  weak.  And  it  needs 
no  prophet's  eye  to  read,  in  the  future,  the  impartial  con 
demnation  of  history.  There  we  shall  be  defeated,  without 
doubt  and  without  help,  however  successful  we  may  be  in 
blowing  up  Mexican  cities  and  dispersing  Mexican  armies. 

But  this  war  is  only  a  small  part  of  a  great  system,  — 
the  war-system  of  nations  ;  and  that  system  is  unjust,  inglo 
rious,  murderous.  What  we  would  scourge  most  severely, 
if  we  could  wield  the  pen  of  a  Juvenal  or  a  Pope,  would  be 
this  whole  childish,  ridiculous,  if  it  were  not  much  more, 
this  wrong  and  inhuman  method,  of  settling  national  dis 
putes.  Our  Mexican  War  is  as  good,  and  as  bad,  as  the 
war  of  France  against  the  Algerines,  —  that  of  the  Russians 
against  the  Circassians,  —  and  that  of  the  English  against 
the  Sikhs.  And,  if  we  speak  of  dismemberment,  Poland 
now  stands  not  alone. 

What  national  honor,  in  fine,  could  be  gained  in  a  contest, 
which,  before  it  broke  out,  Mr.  Thompson,  our  Minister  to 
Mexico,  said,  in  his  "  Recollections,"*  would  be  inadequately 
expressed  by  an  encounter  between  "  a  feeble  woman  and 
a  strong  man  armed !  " 

The  political  evils  of  national  debt,  loss  of  life,  and  acts 
of  barbarism,  have  already  been  descanted  upon  at  length. 
We  proceed  to  consider  some  other  mischiefs,  that  may  be 
classed  under  the  head  of  "  political." 

The  recent  war  with  Mexico  has  produced  a  kind  of  civil 
warfare  in  our  own  borders.  It  has  been  a  very  embittered 
topic  of  debate  and  division.  It  has  been  a  firebrand  of  con 
tention  and  anger,  on  the  floor  of  Congress.  The  press  has 
distilled  gall,  when  the  subject  has  been  introduced.  And, 
worse  than  all,  it  lias  created  strong  sectional  alienations, 
exasperated  all  the  local  strifes  of  the  country,  and  added 

*  Recollections,  p.  2-15- 


176          POLITICAL    EVILS    OF    THE    WAR    AT    HOME. 

new  venom  to  politics.  It  has  brought  up  the  question  of' 
slavery,  and  not  brought  it  up  in  such  a  way  that  we  can 
hope  for  a  happy  issue  from  it. 

Words  are  not,  it  is  true,  bullets,  and  the  pen,  however 
sharp,  does  not  prick-  like  the  bayonet ;  but  the  earnest  lover 
of  his  country  will  deprecate  the  occasions  of  violent  party, 
and  especially  sectional  conflicts,  if  they  can  be  avoided 
without  the  sacrifice  of  principle.  A  quarrelsome  nation  is 
but  a  more  extended  quarrelsome  family.  And  as,  in  do 
mestic  life,  we  think  it  wise  to  shun  petty  bickerings,  so  in 
national  life,  great  animosities  and  the  causes  that  fan  them 
up,  should  be  carefully  avoided.  There  will  be  more  or  less 
friction  in  the  social,  as  in  mechanical  machinery;  but,  in 
both  instances,  it  is  well  to  reduce  it  as  much  as  possible. 
"  Fraternity"  is  one  of  the  great  words  of  a  true  national 
motto;  and  no  "root  of  bitterness"  should  be  lightly  suf 
fered  to  spring  up  and  trouble  us.  The  spirit  of  war  is 
essentially  a  spirit  of  discord  at  home,  as  well  as  abroad.  It 
tends  to  shake,  everywhere,  the  pillars  of  confidence,  good 
will,  and  a  good  understanding  between  citizens,  if  they  be 
on  opposite  sides  of  party  lines. 

The  Mexican  War  will  be  a  standing  topic  of  crimination 
and  recrimination,  through  the  present  generation,  if  not 
during  a  longer  time.  It  has  sown  our  soil  with  dragons' 
teeth,  and  they  will  spring  up  armed  men.  It  has  started 
questions  of  free  territory,  slavery,  boundaries,  pensions, 
private  claims,  and  new  schemes  of  conquest  and  annexa 
tion,  that  will  embroil  the  next  fifty  years,  both  in  our  pub 
lic  councils,  and  among  the  people  and  the  press.  These  are 
no  contemptible  evils,  when  we  remember  that  union  is  the 
strength  of  a  republic,  and  peace  and  love  the  first  duties  of 
the  Christian  code. 

So  far  especially  as  the  Mexican  conquests  have  banded 
North  and  South  against  each  other,  and,  by  widening  our 
domains,  weakened  the  joints  of  our  body  politic,  they  are 


POLITICAL    EVILS    OF    THE    WAR    AT    HOME.          177 

greatly  to  be  deprecated.  In  this  aspect,  they  war  against 
the  glorious  sisterhood  of  the  States,  and  pave  the  way  for 
no  remote  dismemberment.  By  introducing  into  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  American  citizens  a  horde  of  "outside 
barbarians,"  the  mongrel  races  of  New  Mexico  and  Califor 
nia,  they  have  cheapened  the  American  birthright,  and  loos 
ened  the  very  corner-stone  in  our  fabric  of  Federal  Free 
dom.  If  the  spirit,  of  which  this  invasion  is  the  first-fruits, 
be  not  speedily  and  effectually  discountenanced,  the  day 
cannot  be  far  distant  when  a  rupture  will  take  place  be 
tween  the  widely-separated  States,  and  clashing  interests  of 
different  sections  of  our  beloved  republic,  that  will  prove 
incurable.  War,  in  its  Anglo-Saxon  derivation,  means 
"  beware ; "  and  well  would  it  be  for  us,  as  a  people,  if  the 
catastrophe  which  has  befallen  us  should  put  us  on  our  guard 
against  evils  yet  to  come,  and,  above  all,  the  final  dissolution 
of  the  American  Union. 

Again ;  the  liberties  of  mankind,  as  all  history  teaches, 
are  so  liable  to  be  stolen  away  from  the  unwary  many  by 
the  crafty  few,  that  we  can  never  be  too  watchful  of  their 
unimpaired  preservation.  The  forms,  too,  of  freedom  may 
survive,  when  the  spirit  has  ebbed  away.  A  republic,  like 
a  church,  may  have  a  name  to  live,  when  it  is  dead.  What, 
then,  needs  our  perpetual  vigilance,  as  citizens  of  a  free 
land,  is,  that-  the  great  ideas,  out  of  which  our  State  and 
national  constitutions  were  born,  may  be  maintained,  in  their 
original  power,  in  the  minds  of  the  people.  There  is  a 
meaning  in  going  back  to  the  fathers  of  the  Revolution ;  for 
we  are  then  in  reality  going  forward  in  the  prospective 
career  which  they  marked  out,  —  in  that  heroic,  and,  so  to 
say,  inspired  age  of  the  nation.  But,  as  the  love  of  money, 
ambition,  ease,  familiarity  with  free  institutions  breeding 
contempt,  corruption  in  high  places,  and  the  power  of  dema 
gogues,  wax  stronger,  and  mould  to  bad  uses  large  and  un 
suspecting  parties,  it  is  imperatively  necessary  to  quaff  anew 


178          POLITICAL    EVILS    OF    THE    WAR    AT    HOME. 

of  the  spirit  of  '76 ;  and,  if  we  do  not  servilely  copy  what 
the  sages  and  heroes  of  that  period  did,  yet  it  is  wise  to 
consider  what,  under  the  influence  of  such  a  life-giving, 
and  comparatively  disinterested  spirit  of  freedom,  as  then 
burned  in  their  bosoms,  they  would  now  do,  were  they  in 
our  places. 

War  is,  in  itself,  a  temporary  despotism.  Slavery  is  a 
tremendous  evil ;  but  he  who  hates  slavery  should  just  as 
cordially  hate  war,  for  war  gave  birth  to  slavery.  The  cap 
tives  of  war  are  the  victims  of  slavery.  The  African  slave- 
trade  feeds  on  war.  But,  more  than  that,  war  enslaves 
those  that  are  engaged  in  it.  Soldiers  are  slaves.  The  infe 
rior  officers  are  all  slaves  to  the  superior ;  and  the  whole 
army,  or  fleet,  are  subject  to  the  most  absolute,  and  often 
tyrannical  despotism  of  one  man,  the  commanding  general. 
They  have  no  wills,  or  consciences,  or  hearts  of  their  own. 
If  they  are  ordered  to  kill  the  widow's  only  cow  and  burn 
her  cottage,  they  must  march  up  and  do  it,  without  flinching. 
He  who  undertakes  to  have  a  private  opinion  of  his  own  in 
an  army,  will  soon  find  out  his  mistake,  by  means  of  cash 
iering  or  the  cat-o'-nine-tails.  The  defender  of  war  is 
obliged,  from  the  necessity  of  the  case,  to  defend  this  abso 
lutism  ;  for  otherwise  there  could  be  no  marching  or  fighting 
to  any  efficient  purpose.  The  better  slaves,  the  better  sol 
diers.  The  more  total,  and  unquestioning,  and  mechanical 
the  obedience,  the  more  fit  and  successful  is  the  army  for 
accomplishing  its  objects.  Can  that  be  a  good  institution 
that  makes  men  into  machines,  that  enthrones  another's  will, 
however  wicked  or  arbitrary,  over  the  wills,  consciences,  rea 
son,  and  every  "  faculty  divine,"  of  thousands  and  tens  of 
thousands  of  responsible  and  immortal  beings  ? 

We  have  already  recorded  the  words  of  Madison,  in  which 
he  warns  his  countrymen  to  beware  of  the  despotic  influence 
of  war.  It  was  timely  advice.  We  would  single  out, 
indeed,  no  one  man,  or  class  of  men,  as  aspiring  to  destroy 


POLITICAL    EVILS    OF    THE    WAR    ABROAD.  179 

the  liberties  of  their  fatherland.  But  we  cannot  avoid  see 
ing  that  every  war  furnishes  an  occasion  for  a  daring  march 
of  executive  power  upon  the  other  functions  of  government; 
for  the  creation  of  a  multitude  of  offices,  dependent  upon 
the  gift  of  one  man,  or  a  few  men ;  for  the  elevation  of 
military  talents  over  those  of  the  civilian ;  for  the  increase 
of  a  standing  army,  always  a  supple  tool  of  arbitrary  power ; 
for  the  erection  of  military  governments  over  the  conquered 
countries  ;  and  for  the  introduction  of  officers  into  every 
branch  of  the  government,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest, 
whose  sole  or  chief  distinction  is  prowess  in  arms,  and  who 
would  naturally  make  military  maxims  the  basis  of  their 
official  administration.  It  was  when  the  Pretorian  Guards 
of  Rome  bore  the  emperor  into  office  by  their  despotic  will, 
that  the  mistress  of  nations  began  to  decline.  And  when,  in 
any  nation,  the  glorious  gifts  of  Christian  statesmanship,  and 
ripe  experience,  and  large  converse  among  men,  and  a  life 
time  of  civil  services  to  one's  country  and  the  world,  are 
postponed  and  set  aside  for  "  the  conquering  hero,"  the 
Genius  of  rational,  heaven-descended  Liberty  is  already 
meditating  her  departure  to  some  more  congenial  clime. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

POLITICAL    EVILS    OF   THE    WAR   ABROAD. 

"  Freedom  is  fighting  her  battles  in  the  world,  with  sufficient  odds 
against  her.    Let  us  not  give  new  chances  to  her  foes."  —  CIIANNING. 

THE  Mexican  War  has  done  incalculable  harm  to  the 
cause   of  liberty,   throughout  our  country  and  the  world. 


180          POLITICAL     EVILS    OF    THE    WAR    ABROAD. 

This  central  idea  of  our  government,  institutions,  and  des 
tiny,  has  been  foully  disowned.  We  had  already  done  great 
discredit  to  our  good  name,  by  our  violations  of  Indian 
treaties,  our  slavery,  and  our  repudiation  of  State  debts. 
But  this  attack  on  weak  neighbors,  to  steal  away  their  lands, 
is  capping  the  climax  of  wrong  and  dishonor.  See,  says  the 
monarchist,  the  aristocrat,  your  boasted  government  of  the 
people  can  do  as  wicked  and  unjust  things,  as  were  ever  per 
petrated  by  the  kings  and  kaisers  of  the  old  world.  It  is 
the  same  game  of  ambition,  only  it  is  played  by  different 
hands.  It  is  the  ancient  spirit  in  a  new  form.  The  reality 
is  the  same,  sugar  it  over  with  fair  names  as  much  as  you 
please.  War  is  war,  and  tyranny  is  tyranny,  and  slavery 
is  slavery,  —  whether  in  the  United  States,  or  Rome,  or 
England. 

The  example  we  have  thus  set  before  the  world  is  a  most 
noxious  one.  The  stigma  we  have  brought  upon  the  name 
of  Liberty  will  not  soon  be  wiped  out.  We  have  caused  the 
hearts  of  pacific  lovers  of  freedom  everywhere  to  sink  within 
them,  at  the  spectacle  of  a  government  of  the  people  forget 
ting  the  rights  and  interests  of  humanity,  and  waging,  on  the 
ground  of  the  old-world  notions  of  retaliation,  force,  glory, 
security,  and  indemnity,  a  war  of  invasion,  conquest,  and  ter 
rible  barbarity. 

But  when,  to  all  these  considerations  of  the  unfavorable 
bearing  of  the  Mexican  war  on  the  interests  of  freedom  at 
home  and  abroad,  we  add  that  it  was  begun,  continued,  and 
ended,  to  subserve  the  extension  of  slavery  and  the  slave 
power,  we  have  revealed  its  full  enormity.  That  all  who 
were  engaged  in  the  contest,  as  counsellors  or  actors,  on  the 
American  side,  were  actuated  by  this  motive,  would  be 
more  than  any  wise  man  would  assert.  But  we  regard  our 
selves  as  holding  two  impregnable  and  historical  position?, 
when  we  maintain,  that  had  it  not  been  for  the  institution 
of  slavery,  Texas  never  would  have  been  conquered  and  an- 


POLITICAL    EVILS    OF   THE    WAR   ABROAD.  181 

nexed ;  and  that  had  it  not  been  for  the  annexation  of  Tex 
as,  and  the  desire  for  more  Mexican  soil,  not  a  drop  of  hu 
man  blood  would  have  been  shed,  nor  would  such  endeared 
names  as  "  beautiful  sight,"  "  true  cross,"  "  holy  cross,"  "  sa 
crament,"  ever  have  been  raised  from  their  innocent  obscu 
rity  to  become  the  dark  and  terrible  names  of  battles  be 
tween  two  Christian  nations.  We  have  already  adduced,  in 
the  third  chapter  of  this  essay,  documentary  evidence  from 
both  the  Executive  and  Legislative  Departments  of  the 
United  States,  to  substantiate  these  positions.  We  need  not 
recapitulate  that  testimony.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  since  that 
chapter  was  written,  the  most  ample  declarations  have  been 
published  by  some,  who  were  prominent  in  the  measure  of 
annexation,  that  they  acted  either  under  the  influence  of  a 
panic  got  up  for  the  occasion,  that  Texas  was  about  to  throw 
herself  into  the  arms  of  some  foreign  power,  or  that  pledges 
were  given  to  insure  their  votes,  which  were  not  afterwards 
fulfilled.  We  hesitate  not  to  say  on  these  and  previous  tes 
timonies,  that  the  Texas  plot  was  one  of  the  darkest  con 
spiracies  that  history  anywhere  records,  against  human  lib 
erty  ;  and  that  the  plot  not  only  succeeded  perfectly,  but 
that  it  drew  after  it,  as  an  almost  necessary  consequence  to 
the  same  rapacious  scheme,  a  war  of  conquest,  still  further 
to  extend  this  wicked  and  unnatural,  and  naturally  injurious 
relation  of  absolute  power  on  one  hand,  and  helpless,  hope 
less  servitude  on  the  other,  over  vast  regions  of  God's  earth, 
among  unborn  millions  of  his  children,  and  down  through 
too  patient  years  of  wrong  and  suffering.  What  the  result 
will  be  for  the  new  territories  thus  acquired,  it  would  be 
presumptuous  to  predict ;  we  can  only  entertain  the  strong 
hope  that  the  Proviso  of  Freedom,  under  whatever  name  of 
man  it  may  be  called,  will  be  extended  like  the  wings  of  a 
guardian  angel  over  this  immense  wilderness  of  nature. 
But  the  feeling  and  the  fear  of  bringing  Mexican  land, 
purged  of  slavery  and  the  slave-trade,  under  the  dominion 

16 


182  POLITICAL    EVILS    OF    THE    WAR    ABROAD. 

of  the  United  States,  cannot,  in  concluding  this  head  of  the 
subject,  be  better  expressed  than  in  the  stirring  words  of  a 
Mexican  poet  writing  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  and  of  an 
American  one  writing  during  its  progress.  This  lyric  is  by 
Jose  Ho  Ace  de  Saltillo.* 

"  Hearken !  from  our  Northern  borders 

Sounds  Arista's  bugle  call ; 
On  the  banks  of  Rio  Bravo 
Bursts  the  shell  and  ploughs  the  ball ! 

"  Ghastly  hands  in  Tenochtitlan 

Strike  th'  old  Atzec  battle-drum  5 
Sharp  of  beak  and  strong  of  talon, 
Lo !  Mexitli's  eagles  come  ! 

"  Coldly  sleep  our  slaughtered  brothers ; 

While  above  their  hasty  graves 

Sounds  the  hurrying  hoof  of  rapine, 

And  the  robber-banner  waves. 

"  On  they  come,  the  mad  invaders, 
Like  the  fire  before  the  wind  ; 
Freedom's  harvest-field  before  them, 

* 

Slavery's  blackened  waste  behind  I 

"  From  the  sellers  of  God's  image 

From  the  traffickers  in  man, 
Mother  gracious,  mother  holy, 
Shield  thy  dark-browed  Mexican  ! 

"  Hearken  !  up  the  Rio  Bravo 

Comes  the  negro-catcher's  shout : 
Listen !  'tis  the  Yankee's  hammer 
Forging  human  fetters  out ! 

"  Let  the  land  we  love  be  wasted, 

Black  with  fire  and  rough  with  graves  ; 
Better  far  for  God  and  Freedom 
Die  at  once  than  live  as  slaves  ! 

*  "A  Mexican  of  some  celebrity."     See  Montgomery's  Life  of  Gen. 
Taylor,  pp.  316,317. 


POLITICAL    EVILS    OF    THE   "WAR   ABROAD.  183 

"  We  arc  few  and  they  are  many, 

Strong  in  arms,  and  wealth,  and  pride ; 
But  the  saints  and  holy  angels, 
And  man's  heart  are  on  our  side. 

"  Hark !  from  ancient  Tenochitlan, 

Sounds  once  more  the  Atzec  drum ; 
Not  for  conquest,  not  for  vengeance, 
But  for  Freedom,  Faith,  and  Home ! " 

In  the  poem  entitled  "  Yorktown,"  referring  to  the  com 
promises  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  perpetuation  of  slavery 
in  the  United  States,  Whittier  breaks  forth  in  these  indig 
nant  stanzas,  — 

"  Oh !  fields  still  green  and  fresh  in  story, 
Old  days  of  pride,  old  names  of  glory, 
Old  marvels  of  the  tongue  and  pen, 
Old  thoughts  which  stirred  the  hearts  of  men  ! 
Ye  spared  the  wrong ;  and  over  all 
Behold  the  avenging  shadow  fall ! 
Your  world- wide  honor  stained  with  shame, 
Your  Freedom's  self  a  hollow  name. 

"  Where V  now  the  flag  of  that  old  war  ? 
Where  flow  its  stripes  ?     Where  burns  its  star  ? 
Bear  witness,  Palo  Alto's  day, 
Dark  Vale  of  Palms,  red  Monterey, 
Where  Mexic  Freedom,  young  and  weak, 
Fleshes  the  Northern  eagle's  beak : 
Symbol  of  terror  and  despair, 
Of  chains  and  slaves,  go  seek  it  there  ! 

"Laugh,  Prussia,  'midst  thy  iron  ranks  ! 
Laugh,  "Russia,  from  thy  Neva's  banks ! 
Brave  sport  to  see  the  fledgling  born 
Of  Freedom,  by  its  parents  torn ! 
Safe  now  your  Spcilburg's  dungeon  cell, 
Safe  drear  Siberia's  frozen  hell : 
With  Slavery's  flag  o'er  both  unrolled, 
What  of  tho/Ncw  World  fears  the  Old  !" 


184  POLITICAL    EVILS    OP    THE   WAR   ABROAD. 

But  we  have  gained,  still,  say  the  war-advocates,  a  great 
renown,  and  made  the  nations  of  the  earth,  especially  poor 
Mexico,  tremblingly  afraid  of  us.  This  is  one  of  the  glories 
of  war,  and  its  avowed  merit.  But  is  this  a  manly,  a 
rational,  or  a  Christian  mode  of  reasoning?  Love  is  as 
much  better  than  fear  among  nations  as  it  is  among  indi 
viduals.  If  we  have  taught  the  nations  to  dread  or  hate  us 
for  our  injustice  and  rapacity,  have  we  probably  retarded  or 
advanced  the  cause  of  freedom  in  the  world?  We  have 
taught  them  that  republics  can  be  as  ambitious  as  monar 
chies,  and  can  load  their  people  with  war-taxes  as  unspar 
ingly,  and  squander  their  lives  and  happiness  as  recklessly 
and  as  causelessly.  We  have  shown  that  the  eagle  has 
claws  as  sharp,  and  a  beak  as  bloody,  as  the  tooth  of  the 
lion,  or  the  paw  of  the  bear.  Besides,  the  question  is,  whe 
ther  this  reputation  for  military  glory  is  what  a  nation 
should  chiefly  seek  ?  Whether  the  arts  of  peace  are  not  a 
better  foundation  for  honor  than  the  arts  of  war  ?  And 
whether  those  nations  or  communities, — the  mobs  of  Euro 
pean  cities,  the  cabinets  of  warlike  States,  the  fierce,  and 
brutal,  and  bloody  men  of  the  age,  who  have  no  just  sense 
of  the  value  of  human  life,  and  little  touch  of  the  spirit  of 
Christ, — whether  those  are  to  be  our  judges,  to  whom  we 
are  to  look  for  approval  in  our  national  acts  ?  Are  we 
to  kill  thousands  for  the  sake  of  propitiating  the  military 
class  of  Europe,  or  any  other  quarter,  to  the  opinion  that 
we  are  after  all  as  adroit  cut-throats  as  they  are  them 
selves  ?  Is  such  a  character  the  one  we  should  be  emu 
lous  to  gain  in  the  infancy  of  our  republic  ?  Is  it  not  es 
sentially  a  guilty,  blood-stained  glory,  unbecoming  a  Chris 
tian  people,  and  quite  at  variance  with  those  smooth  and 
honied  professions  of  liberty  and  peace  which  have  been 
upon  our  lips  from  the  beginning  ?  Injustice  never  yet 
gained  sincere  respect.  The  truth  is,  the  nations  hate  and 
loathe  us  for  this  very  war.  They  despise  the  cowardice 


POLITICAL    EVILS    OF    THE    WAR    ABROAD.  185 

that  pounced  upon  a  weaker  country,  and  dismembered  its 
territory  by  force  of  arms.  This  war  has  gained  us  the  good 
opinion  abroad  of  none  whose  good  opinion  is  worth  possessing. 
The  political  effect  of  the  war  on  Mexico  has  been  bad. 
The  whole  attention  of  that  country  has  been  devoted  two 
years  to  war.  This  cannot  have  been  favorable  to  the  work 
ing  of  free  institutions.  The  funds  of  the  nation  have  been 
diverted  into  channels  of  barren  expenditure,  yielding  no 
profitable  returns.  The  talent,  skill,  power,  and  time  of  the 
Mexican  people  for  two  years  have  been  turned  away  from 
alt  the  works  and  processes  of  improvement,  to  the  siege 
and  the  battle-field.  Her  commerce  was  destroyed,  and  her 
agriculture  wasted.  The  manners  and  morals  of  large  num 
bers  of  her  people  were  infected  by  the  pernicious  contagion 
of  camp  vices  and  habits.  Her  national  pride  and  self- 
respect  have  received  a  severe  blow,  and  prepared  her  to 
strive  with^less  "might  and  main"  to  perfect  republican 
forms  of  government,  or  repel  future  invasions.  She  has 
lost  between  one-third  and  one-half  of  her  territory.  The 
spirit  of  revolution,  always  rampant  in  her  Capital  and  pro 
vinces,  has  received  a  new  impetus  in  the  generally  disor 
dered  state  of  the  country.  Her  military  leaders  will  gather 
new  materials  for  civil  contests  in  the  measures  that  the  war 
has  developed,  and  new  instruments  to  carry  them  on  in  the 
hordes  of  disbanded  soldiers  that  are  now  thrown  out  of  em 
ployment,  and  are  ready  to  join  in  any  scheme  of  violence 
and  plunder.  So  wide  have  been  these  injurious  influences 
upon  the  political  weal  of  Mexico,  that  it  has  been  said  by 
competent  authority  on  the  spot,  that  "  the  whole  male 
population  of  Mexico  appears  to  be  fast  relapsing  into  a 
state  of  brigandage."  The  system  of  guerilla  warfare  must 
have  done  much  to  demoralize  the  peasantry,  and  to  infuse 
into  the  remotest  sections  of  the  country  the  deadly  virus  of 
war-habits,  vices,  cruelty,  and  abandonment  of  the  regular 
occupations  of  industry  and  honesty. 
16* 


186  POLITICAL    EVILS    OF    THE    WAR    ABROAD, 

Not  the  least  of  the  evils  of  the  war  will  be  an  increased 
bitterness  and  hostility  in  Mexico  against  the  United  States 
and  against  free  institutions.  This  was  the  result  of  the. 
Texas  difficulties,  according  to  Mr.  Thompson,  in  his  Recol 
lections  of  Mexico.  "  The  feeling  of  all  Mexicans  toAvards 
us,  until  the  revolution  in  Texas,  Avas  one  of  unmixed  admi 
ration  ;  and  it  is  our  high  position  amongst  the  nations,  and 
makes  our  mission  all  the  more  responsible,  that  every  people 
struggling  to  be  free,  regard  us  with  the  same  feelings,  — 
we  are  indeed  the  '  looking-glass  in  which  they  dress  them 
selves.'  As  a  philanthropist,  I  have  deeply  deplored  the 
effects  of  the  annexation  of  Texas  upon  the  feelings  of  the 
people  of  all  classes  in  Mexico,  towards  this  country,  as 
diminishing  their  devotion  to  republican  institutions ;  this 
should  not  be  so,  but  it  Avill  be." 

Much  indeed  has  been  said  of  the  political  benefits  accru 
ing  to  Mexico  from  this  conquest.  But  were  these  benefits 
commended  to  us  as  a  people,  Ave  should  not  be  long  probably 
in  testifying  our  repugnance  to  the  mission  of  foreign  proga- 
gandists.  We  should  altogether  prefer  to  manage  our  own 
affairs  in  our  OAvn  Avay ;  and  AVC  should  very  much  question 
the  right  of  any  nation,  hoAvever  Avise,  or  good,  or  powerful, 
to  rivet  their  measures  upon  us  by  force,  slice  off  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  square  miles  of  our  national  territory,  kill 
thousands  of  our  citizens,  destroy  millions  of  our  property, 
and  ere  the  seal  AAras  hardly  cold  on  the  instrument  of  amity 
and  peace,  to  plot  new  schemes  of  invasion,  or  alloAV  them 
to  be  plotted.  So  imperfectly  can  we  arrive  at  a  true  knowl 
edge  of  the  internal  state  of  affairs  in  that  unhappy,  dis 
tracted  country,  that  only  on  the  general  ground  indicated 
in  these  brief  words  do  Ave  come  to  the  conclusion,  that, 
though  Providence,  in  its  Avise  chemistry,  may  elaborate, 
even  out  of  this  Avar  and  its  miseries,  good  to  the  sufii-ring 
republic,  yet  AVC  have  no  commission  or  license,  as  a  nation, 
any  more  than  individuals,  to  "  do  evil  that  good  may  come." 


THE    NEW   TERRITORIES.  187 

Evil  is  evil,  and  sin  is  sin,  and  the  consequences  cannot  alter 
the  moral  complexion  of  an  act.  No  doubt,  as  Nature  heals 
on  her  beautiful  face  the  scars  of  the  torn  battle-plain,  wipes 
away  with  her  tears,  shed  from  heaven,  the  stains  of  blood, 
and  even  clothes  herself  with  a  greener  vesture  and  more 
blooming  flowers  than  before ;  so  the  infinite  Providence,  in 
which  all  worlds  and  all  beings  are  embosomed,  with  a  like 
hopefulness  and  soothing  efficacy  of  time,  may  work  out  of 
the  bitter  woes  of  war  a  greater  good  than  man  thought  of; 
but  God's  goodness,  instead  of  excusing  our  wickedness,  only 
makes  it  appear  all  the  more  guilty  and  shocking.  Mexico 
may  not  fall.  The  blow  she  has  received  may  rouse  her 
latent  energies  of  self-improvement.  But  if  the  period 
should  ever  arrive  when  the  largest  republic  on  earth,  next 
to  our  own,  and  the  most  hopeful  and  consistent  one,  is  blot 
ted  out  of  the  record  of  nations  and  becomes  the  Poland  of 
the  West,  we  shall  stand  condemned  in  the  eyes  of  heaven 
and  our  own,  as  the  authors  of  so  tremendous  a  catastrophe. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

THE   NEW   TERRITORIES. 

"And  what,  in  principle,  is  war?  It  is  the  duel  between  nations,  dif 
fering  in  no  respect  from  the  duel  between  individuals,  except  that  the 
successful  combatant  is  allowed  to  carry  off  as  spoil  the  effects  of  his 
vanquished  antagonist."  —  BISHOP  POTTER. 

THE  acquisition  of  the  territories  of  New  Mexico  and 
California  is  regarded  by  many  as  a  sufficient  compensation 
for  all  the  losses  and  evils  of  the  war,  and  a  summary  answer 


188  THE    NEW    TERRITORIES. 

to  all  objectors.  The  ports  on  the  Pacific,  the  immense 
extent  of  country,  and  above  all  the  astonishing  mineral 
wealth  are  adduced  as  reasons  to  satisfy  us  that  it  was  well 
the  war  was  waged;  as  if  these  good  things  were  some  fair 
exchange ;  as  if  the  question  had  been  put  to  us,  what  shall 
it  profit  the  nation,  if  it  gain  the  whole  world,  and  lose  its 
own  soul  of  faith  and  freedom;  and  we  had  seemed  to 
answer,  it  shall  profit  us  richly,  if  we  can  gain  San  Fran 
cisco,  the  Pacific  port,  the  Sacramento,  river  of  gold,  and  a 
boundless  extent  of  new  lands. 

There  are,  however,  important  drawbacks  to  the  value  of 
our  possessions,  and  to  the  satisfaction  with  which  an  honest 
man  can  speak  of  them. 

There  is,  in  the  first  place,  the  way  in  which  they  were 
acquired,  —  by  force,  by  conquest,  by  might,  and  not  by 
right.  As  early  as  June  24,  1845,  Commodore  Sloat  re 
ceived  secret  and  confidential  orders  from  the  JSavy  Depart 
ment,  to  employ  his  squadron  in  the  Pacific  in  warlike 
operations,  seizing  and  occupying  San  Francisco,  and  other 
Mexican  ports,  as  soon  as  he  had  ascertained  with  certainty 
the  existence  of  war  between  Mexico  and  the  United  States, 
Seven  ships  of  war  and  between  2000  and  3000  men  and 
officers  afforded  him  ample  power  to  carry  into  execution 
his  orders.  Haying  heard  rumors  of  the  battles  on  the  Rio 
Grande,  he  seized,  July  7, 184G,  Monterey,  Upper  California, 
without  resistance,  and  issued  a  proclamation,*  in  which  he 
annexed  the  country  permanently  to  the  American  Union, 
saying  that  "  henceforward  California  will  be  a  portion  of 
the  United  States,"  and  in  which  he  assured  the  people,  that 
"  the  same  protection  would  be  extended  to  them  as  to  any 
other  State  in  the  Union ; "  thus  virtually  excluding  the  idea 
of  any  changes  in  the  government,  which  a  treaty  of  peace, 
or  the  action  of  Congress  might  produce.  In  the  language 

*  30th  Cong.  2d  Session,  Ho.  of  Rep.  Ex.  Doc.  No.  1,  p.  1010. 


THE    NEW    TERRITORIES.  189 

of  Commodore  Stockton,  "  the  intelligence  of  the  commence 
ment  of  hostilities  between  the  two  nations,  although  it  had 
passed  through  Mexico,  had  reached  Commodore  Sloat  in 
advance  of  the  Mexican  authorities.  When  he  first  made 
his  hostile  demonstrations,  therefore,  the  enemy,  ignorant  of 
the  existence  of  the  war,  had  regarded  his  acts  as  an  unwar 
rantable  exercise  of  power  by  the  United  States,  and  the 
most  lively  indignation  and  bitter  resentment  filled  the  coun 
try."  The  motives  under  which  the  conqueror  acted  are 
portrayed  in  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  to  Comman 
der  Montgomery,  dated  Monterey,  July  G,  184G,*  "  since  I 
wrote  you  last  evening,  I  have  determined  to  hoist  the  flag 
of  the  United  States  at  this  place  to-morrow,  as  I  would  prefer 
leiny  sacrificed  for  doing  too  much  than  too  little."  The  dan 
ger  to  which  he  was  exposed,  of  being  sacrificed  for  doing 
too  little,  was  well  set  forth  in  a  letter  from  Mr.  Bancroft, 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  which,  after  chiding  him  for  remain 
ing  quiet  from  June  6th,  when  he  heard  of  the  affairs  on  the 
Ixio  Grande,  till  July  7th,  when  he  captured  Monterey,  used 
this  tone ;  f  "  but  your  anxiety  not  to  do  wrong  has  led  you 
into  a  most  unfortunate  and  unwarranted  inactivity."  Would 
it  not  often  be  better  for  our  country,  and  for  all  countries, 
if  public  officers  had  more  of  that  "anxiety  not  to  do 
wrong  ?  " 

But  the  part  enacted  by  Fremont  in  California  sufficiently 
indicated  that  he  was  there,  and  that  he  took  part  in  the 
revolutionary  and  warlike  movements,  not  without  high 
authority  implied,  though  not  perhaps  distinctly  expressed. 
He  left  St.  Louis  in  June,  1845,  on  a  topographical  and 
scientific  survey  of  Oregon  and  California,  with  a  command 
of  sixty-two  men  and  two  hundred  horses.  The  Oregon 
boundary  was  in  dispute,  but  the  California  boundary  was 

*  30th  Cong.  1st  Session,  Senate.    Rep.  Com.  No.  75,  p.  73. 
t  ;50th  Cong.  1st  Session,  Senate.    Rep.  Com.  No.  75,  p.  71.    Also, 
p.  13. 


190  THE   NEW   TERRITORIES. 

clearly  defined.  And  no  armed  party  of  men  from  thft 
United  States  had  any  more  right  to  be  travelling  in,  and 
surveying  that  country,  than  sixty  armed  Mexicans  to  enter 
Florida  and  travel  through  it  on  a  topographical  and  scien 
tific  survey.  There  was  an  ulterior  motive  besides  science. 
It  was  remarkable  too  that  several  months  had  been  devoted 
to  California,  which  belonged  to  Mexico,  and  not  a  day  to 
Oregon,  which  did  belong  to  the  United  States.  What  Fre 
mont's  instructions  were  when  he  was  sent  out,  are  secrets 
buried  in  the  archives  of  the  Government.  But  the  facts 
are  indisputable.  Fremont  was  there,  ready  for  any  move 
ment.  He  naturally  awakened  the  suspicions  of  the  Cali- 
fornian  authorities.  Gen.  Castro,  military  commander  of 
California,  ordered  him  to  leave  the  country.  But  lie  took 
an  intrenched  position  and  avowed  his  intention,  if  attacked, 
to  die  in  defence  of  the  flag  of  his  country,  though  he  had 
dishonored  that  flag  by  confessedly  planting  it  on  the  foreign 
soil  of  Mexico.  He  retired  however  to  the  north,  into  Ore 
gon,  before  the  forces  of  Castro,  and  was  there  reached  by 
an  officer,  Lieut.  Gillespie,  the  bearer  of  important  despatches 
from  the  United  States  through  Mexico,  which  he  had  com 
mitted  to  memory,  that  chance  might  not  betray  them  to  the 
Mexican  government.  On  the  10th  of  May,  1 840,  the  par 
ties  met.  The  nature  of  the  message  will  best  be  told 
in  Fremont's  own  language :  "  He  brought  me  a  letter  of 
introduction  from  the  Secretary  of  State,  (Mr.  Buchanan,) 
and  letters  and  papers  from  Senator  Benton  and  his  family. 
The  letter  from  the  Secretary  imported  nothing  beyond  the 
introduction,  and  was  directed  to  me  in  my  private  or  citizen 
capacity.  The  outside  envelop  of  a  packet  from  Senator 
Benton  was  directed  in  the  same  way,  and  one  of  the  letters 
from  him,  while  apparently  of  mere  friendship  and  family 
details,  contained  passages  enigmatical  and  obscure,  but  which 
I  studied  out,  and  made  the  meaning  to  be  that  I  was  required 
by  the  Government  to  find  out  any  foreign  schemes  fc»  relar 


THE    NEW    TERRITORIES.  191 

lion  to  the  Californias,  and  to  counteract  them."  *  He  fur 
ther  says,  "  the  letter  from  Senator  Benton  had  a  decided 
influence  on  my  next  movement."  Lieut.  Gillespie  also 
testified  essentially  to  the  same  statement  respecting  his 
instructions  from  the  home  government.  Capt.  Owens  also 
declared  before  the  committee  on  "  California  claims,"  that 
he  did  not  think  the  revolution  against  the  government  would 
have  taken  place,  or  the  people  been  united  without  the  aid 
and  protection  of  Captain  Fremont.  They  had  not  confi 
dence  enough  in  their  strength  to  undertake  the  war  without 
support.  Captain  Fremont's  party  was  strong  and  well  armed, 
and  went  together  like  one  man.  Another  witness,  Loker, 
testified,  "  then  commenced  the  revolution."  f 

Turning  back  from  Oregon  into  "  the  unsettled  parts  of 
the  Sacramento,"  and  hearing  rumors  of  warlike  movements 
by  Gen.  Castro,  Fremont  put  himself,  June  10th,  at  the  head 
of  the  American  settlers  at  their  earnest  request,  joining 
them  "  with  his  party,  and  (what  they  deemed  of  great 
moment)  his  name  as  an  American  officer."  The  first  act 
cf  this  clandestine  war  was  the  seizure  of  some  horses  of 
Gen.  Castro.  The  fort  of  Sonoma  was  captured,  and  on 
July  5th,  the  Californians  declared  their  independence,  and 
adopted  the  figure  of  the  grizzly  bear  as  their  standard.  Soon 
afterwards,  however,  Fremont  and  Stockton  united  their 
forces  under  the  flag  of  the  United  States,  and  the  republic 
of  Califopnia  had  an  even  shorter  existence  than  the  republic 
of  Texas. 

Thus  by  violence  and  conquest,  hatched,  abetted  and  con 
summated  before  it  was  distinctly  known  that  any  declared 
war  existed,  was  the  territory  belonging  to  Mexico  torn 
away,  and  proclaimed  to  be  an  absolute  and  perpetual  pos 
session  of  the  United  States.  Is  it  not  within  the  bounds  of 
imagination  to  conceive,  that  had  the  English,  instead  of  the 

*  30th  Cong.  1st  Session,  Senate.     Ex.  Doc.  No.  33,  pp.  373,  374. 
t  30th  Cong.  1st  Session,  Senate.    Rep.  Com  Ko.  75,  pp.  38;  39. 


THE   NEW   TERRITORIES. 

Mexican,  flag  been  flying  over  Monterey  and  San  Francisco, 
these  officers  would  have  paused  before  they  pulled  it  down. 

This  insolence  of  power  was  still  further  illustrated  by 
the  designation  which  Stockton  and  other  officers  gave  to 
those  who  rose  and  resisted  their  violent  acts,  calling  them 
rebels  and  insurgents,*  when  they  were  themselves  confes 
sedly  acting  without,  what  are  called  the  rights  of  war ;  f 
Fremont  fighting,  as  he  acknowledged,  on  his  own  hook,j 
and  Stockton  on  only  implied  powers  from  his  government. 

One  word  is  due  to  New  Mexico,  after  which  other  topics 
relating  to  the  new  territories  acquired,  will  be  discussed. 
The  conquest  of  this  Mexican  province  was  effected  by  Gen. 
Kearney  with  a  command  despatched  for  that  purpose.  But 
he  overstepped  the  line  of  authority,  as  did  the  officers  in 
California,  by  erecting  New  Mexico  into  a  territory  of  the 
United  States  before  peace  was  made,  and  by  absolving  the 
inhabitants  from  their  allegiance,  threatening  them  with 
death,  if  they  took  up  arms,  §  enacting  laws,  in  some  in- 

*  Cutts'  Conquest  of  California,  pp.  129,  130,  133.  157,  161,  163. 

t  The  justification  of  Mexican  cruelties  towards  the  prisoners  taken 
in  the  Texan  war,  was  that  they  were  rebels,  traitors  to  the  govern 
ment,  and  therefore  deserved  to  be  imprisoned  or  executed.  28th 
Cong.  Igt  Session,  Senate,  341,  p.  72. 

J  "In  June  of  the  year  1846,  being  then  a  brevet  captain  of  topo 
graphical  engineers  in  the  service  of  the  United  States,  and  employed 
as  such  in  California,  he  engaged  in  military  operations  with  the  people 
of  the  country  for  the  establishment  of  the  independence  of  California, 
before  the  existence  of  war  beticeen  the  United  Slates  and  Mexico  vcas 
known,  and  was  successful  in  said  undertaking,"  etc.  30th  Cong.  1st 
Session,  Senate.  Rep.  Com.  Xo.  75,  p.  1.  "I  informed  him,  that  I  had 
acted  solely  on  my  own  responsibility,  and  without  any  authority  from 
the  government  to  justify  hostilities."  p.  13. 

§  Cutts'  Conquest  of  California,  p.  46,  51,  57,  58.  Perhaps  the  best 
parallel  to  the  ancient  anecdote  of  Alexander  and  the  Pirate  is  found 
in  the  following  interview  between  Gen.  Kearney  and  an  Indian  war 
rior:  "Just  as  we  were  leaving  camp  to-day,  an  old  Apache  chief  camo 
in  and  harangued  the  general  thus  :  '  You  have  taken  Santa  F6,  let  us 


THE   NEW    TERRITORIES.  193 

stances  cruel  and  unnatural,  and  forcing  Mexicans  against 
their  will  to  become  Americans.  After  the  conquest,  Texas 
claimed  New  Mexico  as  rightfully  belonging  to  her,  and 
endeavored  to  extend  over  it  her  jurisdiction  and  her  system 
of  slavery.  What  will  be  the  result  remains  yet  to  be  seen. 
She  is  prohibited  by  the  joint  resolution  of  annexation  from 
extending  slavery  farther  north  than  36°  30',  but  her  laws 
make  no  such  scrupulous  limits  to  the  dominions  of  oppres 
sion. 

The  vast  domains  acquired  from  Mexico,  partly  under 
pretence  of  giving  them  a  better  government  and  free  insti 
tutions,  have  been  more  than  a  year  since  the  treaty  of  peace 
was  declared,  deprived  of  any  but  a  fluctuating  military  gov 
ernment,  without  efficiency  or  consistency,  and  the  prospect 
now  is  that  this  state  of  things  will  exist  for  some  time 
longer.  The  determination  to  reestablish  slavery  over  lands 
that  have  been  redeemed  and  emancipated  from  its  curse, 
may  still  farther  postpone  the  erection  of  suitable  territorial 
governments.  Meantime,  slaves  have  been  carried  into  these 
new  regions,  the  buying  and  selling  of  human  beings  has 
commenced,  and  the  language  of  the  slave  press  is,  "  Here 
is  a  vast  field  opened  to  the  wealth  and  labor  of  the  South, 
which  if  improved,  promises  a  rich  harvest.  Slave  labor 
can  be  employed  more  profitably  in  mining  in  California  and 
New  Mexico,  than  it  possibly  can  be  in  any  portion  of  the 
United  States.  Thus  an  extensive  domain  will  be  created 
for  slave  labor,  the  surplus  of  which  is  now  crushing  the 
Southern  states."  * 

Parts  of  Tamaulipas,  Chihuahua,  Coahuila,  and  the  whole 

go  on  and  take  Chihuahua  and  Sonora ;  we  will  go  with  you.  You 
Jight  for  the  soil,  ice  Jiyht  for  plunder;  so  ice  ivill  agree  perfectly.  These 
people  are  bad  Christians;  let  us  give  them  a  good  thrashing,'"  etc. 
Capt.  Johnston's  Journal,  30th  Cong.  1st  Session,  Ho.  of  Rep.  Ex.  Doc. 
No.  41,  p.  580. 

*  The  Nashville  Union,  1849. 

17 


194  THE    NEW    TERRITORIES. 

of  New  Mexico  and  Upper  California,  have  all  been  added 
by  the  late  war  and  the  treaty  succeeding  it,  to  the  United 
States.  How  much  this  measure  may  have  done  to  slake  the 
natural  thirst  for  territory  may  be  considered,  when  it  is 
kown,  that,  according  to  the  statistics  furnished  Congress  in 
1848  by  the  War  Department,  New  Mexico  contains  77,387 
square  miles,  and  California  448,691  square  miles  ;  or  total 
526,078  square  miles,  or  366,589,920  acres.  Besides  this 
boundless  surface,  that  would  make  more  than  eleven  states  as 
large  as  New  York,  Texas  has  gained  additions  te  her  before 
immense  territory,  so  that  she  possesses  now  325,520  square 
miles,  or  208,322,800  square  acres,  or  a  region  that  would 
make,  in  all,  more  than  seven  States  as  large  as  New  York  ; 
and  if  united  with  New  Mexico  and  California,  would  con 
stitute  a  territoiy  carved  out  of  Mexico  more  than  eighteen 
times  as  large  as  the  Empire  State,  or  more  than  one  hundred 
and  nine  times  as  large  as  Massachusetts  ;  a  tract  of  country 
about  as  large  as  England,  Ireland,  Scotland,  France,  Spain, 
Portugal,  Italy,  and  Germany  combined ! 

But  vast  as  these  domains  of  New  Mexico  and  California  are, 
the  testimony  of  many  travellers  is,  that  they  are  not  highly 
valuable  either  for  agricultural,  commercial  or  manufacturing 
purposes. 

Col.  Hardin,  who  was  killed  at  the  Battle  of  Buena  Vista, 
says,  "  irrigation  is  necessary  to  insure  all  the  crops  in  Mexi 
co."  "Nothing  strikes  an  American  eye  sooner,  or  more 
strongly,  than  the  denuded  landscape  every  where  presented 
to  his  view  in  Northern  Mexico." 

Major  Gaines,  another  officer,  says,  "The  country  from 
the  Nueces  to  the  Rio  Grande  is  poor,  sterile,  sandy,  and 
barren,  —  with  not  a  single  tree  of  any  size  or  value,  on  our 
whole  route."  Yet  it  was  this  disputed  tract  of  desert  that 
led  to  the  first  conflict  of  arms.  He  adds,  •"  I  have  no  hesi 
tation  in  saying  that  I  would  not  hazard  the  life  of  one  valu 
able  and  useful  man  for  every  foot  of  land  between  San  Pa- 


THE    NEW    TERRITORIES.  195 

tricio  (or  the  Nueces)  and  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Grande. 
The  country  is  not  now  and  never  can  be  of  the  slightest 
value." 

We  have  already  quoted  Hon.  C.  J.  Ingersoll,  as  calling  it 
"  a  stupendous  desert." 

Ruxton,  an  English  traveller,  says  of  New  Mexico,  "the 
general  character  of  the  department  is  extreme  aridity  of 
soil,  and  the  consequent  deficiency  of  water,  which  must 
ever  prevent  its  being  thickly  settled.  The  valley  of  the 
Del  Norte  is  fertile,  but  of  limited  extent,  and  other  portions 
of  the  province  are  utterly  valueless  in  an  agricultural  point 
of  view,  and  their  metallic  wealth  is  greatly  exaggerated." 

Lieut.  Peck,  of  the  Corps  of  Topographical  Engineers, 
says,  "  the  boundaries  of  the  territory  (New  Mexico)  have 
never  been  very  exactly  defined,  as  a  great  share  of  the  line 
lies  over  desert  countries,  where  very  little  importance  can 
attach  to  any  exact  location."  "  Many  minerals,  as  iron,  cop 
per  and  lead  occur  in  the  mountains ;  but  situated  at  the  dis 
tance  they  are  from  the  markets  of  the  world,  they  will  hardly 
be  wrought." 

Mr.  Farnham  calls  the  east  part  of  California,  "  a  howling 
desolation." 

Of  another  portion  of  California,  more  to  the  west,  Col. 
Emory  of  the  U.  S.  A.  says,  "  the  land  in  the  narrow  valleys 
is  good,  but  high,  surrounded  every  where  by  barren  moun 
tains  ;  and  where  the  land  is  good,  the  seasons  are  too  dry 
for  men  to  attempt  cultivation  without  facilities  of  irrigation." 
Speaking  of  all  the  northern  states  of  Mexico,  he  says,  "  in 
no  part  of  this  vast  tract  can  the  rains  from  heaven  be  relied 
upon  to  any  extent  for  the  cultivation  of  the  soil.  The  earth 
is  destitute  of  trees,  and  in  great  part  also  of  any  vegetation 
whatever." 

Captain  Wilkes,  commander  of  the  Exploring  Expedition, 
gives  no  very  sanguine  views  either  of  the  agricultural  or 
commercial  prospects  of  California,  denies  the  alleged  supe- 


196  THE   NEW   TERRITORIES. 

rior  excellence  of  San  Francisco,  as  a  great  Pacific  port,  and 
says,  "  although  I  am  not  disposed  to  question  its  extent  and 
safety,  yet  I  think  there  are  many  considerations  which  show 
that  it  is  not  so  well  adapted  for  the  purposes  of  trade,  or 
facilities  for  promoting  it,  as  is  generally  believed." 

The  testimony  of  some  of  these  and  other  travellers  is, 
that  the  intellectual  and  moral  aspects  of  the  people  are  of  a 
kin  with  the  desert  character  of  the  soil ;  that  ignorance, 
licentiousness,  idleness,  intemperance,  and  every  savage  and 
every  civilized  vice,  have  a  rank  growth  among  the  heteroge 
neous  population.  Ruxton  represents  the  whole  people  as 
bitterly  opposed  to  the  United  States,  in  proof  of  which  fact, 
so  far  as  New  Mexico  is  concerned,  he  adduces  the  insurrec 
tion  in  which  Gov.  Bent,  and  his  followers  were  cruelly  mur 
dered.  We  have  made  a  poor  bargain  to  wage  an  expensive 
and  sanguinary  war  to  attach  such  a  country  to  our  States, 
and  mix  such  elements  of  ignorance,  vice,  and  discord  with 
republican  blood.  Ill  especially  has  been  the  annexation, 
when  in  addition  to  the  war  we  paid  some  $20,000,000  for  it 
to  Mexico,  though  as  an  act,  we  rejoice  that  it  was  done,  if 
the  land  were  to  be  taken,  on  the  score  of  its  justice. 

We  may  then  class  this  territory  among  the  political  evils 
resulting  from  the  Mexican  war.  We  had  more  land  before 
than  we  could  settle  and  till  for  years  to  come.  We  had 
room  enough  and  to  spare.  The  new  territories  have  intro 
duced  new  topics  of  dispute.  They  will  require  a  large 
standing  army  for  their  protection  from  the  Indians,  and 
others.*  They  expose  our  boundaries  to  perpetual  inroads. 

*  The  eleventh  article  of  the  Treaty  with  Mexico  obligates  the  Uni 
ted  States  to  prevent  the  incursions  of  the  Indians  from  New  Mexico, 
and  California  into  the  adjoining  provinces  of  Mexico,  if  necessary,  by 
force  of  arms.  But  most  cruel  and  devastating  wars  have  been  waged 
in  1848,  and  1849,  by  the  Indians  both  within  our  own  and  the  lim 
its  of  Mexico,  against  the  provinces  lying  on  the  Rio  Grande ;  and  on 
the  other  hand  the  local  Mexican  authorities,  as  a  desperate  measure, 
have  offered  Texan  troops  50  dollars  a  head  for  every  Indian  killed, 
as  if  they  were  so  many  wild  beasts  ! 


THE    NEW    TERRITORIES.  197 

They  are  not  in  themselves  generally  very  valuable,  except 
in  certain  narrow  tracts,  that  minister  to  the  "  auri  sacra 
fames"  the  accursed  hunger  for  gold.  We  have  compelled 
many  thousands  of  people  in  those  regions  to  come  under  our 
government,  which  is  far  from  practising  on  the  doctrine  of 
civil  and  religious  liberty,  and  basing  government  on  the 
consent  of  the  governed.  We  had  established  military  in 
stitutions  over  these  countries,  and  dissolved  the  allegiance 
of  the  inhabitants  to  Mexico,  and  annexed  them  to  the  United 
States,  before  a  treaty  of  peace,  the  only  proper  tribunal,  had 
decided  where  they  should  belong.  We  have  inflicted  a 
cureless  wound  upon  the  self-respect  of  Mexico,  by  dismem 
bering  with  a  violent  hand  her  provinces,  and  destroying  the 
integrity  of  the  national  domains.  We  have  made  an  im 
placable  enemy  where  we  needed  a  fast  friend.  And  so  far 
as  we  have  unjustly,  by  might  and  not  by  right,  acquired  pos 
session  of  parts  of  Tamaulipas,  Chihuahua,  Coahuila,  and  all 
of  New  Mexico  and  Upper  California,  we  must  sooner  or  la 
ter  suffer  the  most  condign  punishment  for  the  gigantic 
wrong.  As  surely  as  there  is  a  God  reigning  in  heaven,  or 
a  Providence  taking  note  of  human  conduct,  the  day  cannot 
be  far  remote,  when  we  shall  be  overtaken  by  the  penalty  of 
the  law  we  have  broken.  Yes,  our  punishment  has  already 
begun.  The  ministers  of  Infinite  Justice  are  upon  us.  Eve 
ry  interest  of  our  beloved  country,  social,  pecuniary,  political, 
domestic,  and  moral  has  felt  the  shock  of  this  war.  The 
eagle  eye  of  Liberty  has  drooped  in  sadness  at  the  triumphs 
of  oppression.  And  the  Religion,  whose  interdict  is,  "  Thou 
shalt  not  covet  any  thing  that  is  thy  neighbor's,"  veils  her 
holy  face  in  abhorrence  af  the  apostasy  of  her  professed 
children. 

But  finally,  it  is  alleged  that  the  new  possessions  are  rich 
in  the  precious  metals.  Granted.  Let  every  hill  be  a 
Potosi,  and  every  stream  a  Pactolus.  Let  millions  of  gold 
and  silver  flow  into  the  coffers  of  our  republic  from  the 

a?* 


198  THE    NETV    TERRITORIES. 

El  Dorado  of  the  Pacific.  But  is  it  a  wise  prayer  to  pray 
that  our  country  should  be  exposed  to  such  a  temptation  ?  that 
our  countrymen  should  be  drawn  still  deeper  into  the  passion 
for  money  ?  These  lands  we  have  seen  Avere  as  much  forced 
from  Mexico  against  her  will,  as  the  robber's  booty  is  ex 
torted  from  the  helpless  traveller  by  arms  and  threats. 

We  beat,  we  threatened,  we  coaxed  Mexico  to  do  what 
was  against  her  wishes  and  interests.  Can  such  treasures, 
thus  procured,  carry  a  blessing  to  their  rapacious  possessors  ? 
Not  if  life  has  one  lesson  left  to  teach  ;  not  if  there  is  any 
truth  in  God's  word  ;  not  if  Providence  has  any  oversight 
over  human  affairs.  Ill-gotten  riches,  —  when  as  a  general 
rule  have  they  beneiitted  individuals  or  nations  ?  Are  we 
not  rushing  into  the  love  of  money,  into  extravagance  and 
worldliness,  and  unrepublican  and  unchristian  habits  with 
sufficient  rapidity,  but  we  must  invoke  new  powers  from  the 
god  of  gold  to  add  to  their  momentum  ?  It  is  quite  a  suffi 
cient  offset,  in  the  judgment  of  not  a  few,  to  all  the  abomina 
tions  of  this  war,  that  it  has  resulted  in  the  acquisition  of 
so  much  more  material  wealth  ;  as  if  that  were  the  great 
good  of  life,  as  if  that  were  what  we  most  needed  in  this 
country,  as  if  it  were  not  the  means  of  stimulating  to  greater 
intensity,  the  eager  desire  for  gain,  and  making  the  dollar 
more  than  ever  the  cfeity  which  the  multitude  worship. 
Enterprise  is  spoken  of;  but  had  we  not  already  a  coun 
try  resting  on  two  remote  oceans  ?  was  there  any  lack  of 
room  ?  Could  "  the  American  multiplication  table,"  as  it  has 
been  called,  replenish  the  lancl  to  overflowing  in  one  or 
two  centuries  ?  Must  we  cast  covetous  eyes  on  our  neigh 
bors'  lands,  because  we  are  a  progressive  people?  Read 
the  history  of  the  nations  which  have  most  abounded  in 
the  precious  metals ;  read  the  tales  of  California  life  thus 
far  developed,  and  then  let  the  true  lover  of  his  country,  let 
the  friend  of  freedom  and  free  institutions,  say  whether  if 
he  were  to  select  any  mode  of  retribution  for  the  stupen- 


THE   NEW   TERRITORIES.  199 

clous  foil y  and  crime  of  such  a  war,  he  could  devise  any  one 
that  under  a  fascinating  disguise  carries  a  Pandora's  box 
of  greater  evils,  than  the  acquisition  of  the  gold  lands  of  the 
Sacramento.  The  wounds  of  the  sword  may  heal,  but  to 
pamper  the  lust  for  wealth  is  to  inflict  deeper  wounds  than 
those  of  the  sword.  The  scars  of  the  battle-field  may  be 
grown  over  by  the  unwearied  powers  of  nature,  and  the  bom 
barded  city  may  again  be  built,  but  the  deep,  eating  canker 
of  avarice  preys  upon  the  nation's  inner  life,  and  frets  and 
poisons  and  consumes  what  is  most  fair  and  noble  and 
great  and  good  in  the  character  of  the  chief  republic  on  the 
globe.  The  ancient  saying  may  be  fulfilled,  "  He  gave  them 
their  request,  but  he  sent  leanness  into  their  souls."  Who 
that  reviews  the  violent  and  fraudulent  means  employed 
to  revolutionize  and  conquer  California,  can  look  with  honest 
complacency  on  the  gold  coin  stamped  with  that  appella 
tion  ?  Who  that  understands  in  any  measure  what  makes  a 
State,  what  constitutes  "  the  true  grandeur  of  nations,"  but 
must  lament  with  an  unusual  bitterness  of  sorrow,  that, 
breaking  away  from  the  high  promise  and  beautiful  charm 
of  our  youth,  and  abjuring  the  splendid  destiny  of  justice, 
peace  and  humanity,  we  should  be  content  to  crawl  in  the 
dust  to  scrape  together  a  little  of  the  perishable  pelf  of  the 
world  ;  and  to  care  less  for  obedience  to  those  eternal  prin 
ciples  on  which  the  moral  universe  is  built,  than  for  certain 
plantations  stocked  with  slaves,  certain  harbors  on  the 
Pacific,  and  certain  valleys  barren  in  aught  but  the  fiery 
gold  !* 

*  "  I  am  a  friend  to  gold  currency,  but  not  to  gold  mining.  That  is  a 
pursuit  which  the  experience  of  nations  shows  to  be  both  impoverishing 
and  demoralizing  to  a  nation.  I  regret  that  we  have  these  mines 
in  California ;  but  they  are  there,  and  I  am  for  getting  rid  of  them 
as  soon  as  possible.  Make  the  working  as  free  as  possible." 

***** 

"  I  care  not  who  digs  it  up.    I  want  it  dug  up.    I  want  the  fever  to 


200     NEW   SCHEMES   OP  INVASION   AND   ANNEXATION. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

NEW    SCHEMES    OP  INVASION   AND    ANNEXATION. 

"  Peace  is  preeminently  our  policy.  Our  road  to  greatness  lies  not 
over  the  ruins  of  others,  but  in  the  quiet  and  peaceful  development  of 
our  immeasurably  great  internal  resources, — in  subduing  our  vast 
forests,  perfecting  the  means  of  internal  intercourse  throughout  our 
widely  extended  country,  and  in  drawing  forth  its  unbounded  agricul- 
taralr  manufacturing,  mineral,  and  commercial  resources.  In  this  am 
ple  field,  all  the  industry,  ingenuity,  enterprize,  and  energy  of  our  peo 
ple  may  find  employment  for  centuries  to  comej  and  through  its 
successful  cultivation,  we  may  hope  to  rise,  not  only  to  a  state  of  pros 
perity,  but  to  that  of  greatness  and  influence  over  the  destiny  of  the 
human  race,  higher  than  has  ever  been  attained  by  arms  by  the  most 
renowned  nations  of  ancient  or  modern  times.  War,  so  £vr  from  ac 
celerating,  can  but  retard  our  march  to  greatness." — CALHOUN. 

THE  alleged  benefit  of  war  as  ridding  society  of  many  of 
its  worst  members,  and  drawing  off  the  vicious  and  aban 
doned  to  supply  the  decimation  of  its  hospitals  and  battle 
fields,  is  very  problematical.  For  it  often  returns  home 
more  vagabonds  and  villains,  than  it  enlisted.  It  demoral 
izes  many  who  were  before  pure,  and  spreads  by  means  of 
its  disbanded  troops  an  immoral  influence  far  and  wide  in 
the  land.  A  large  class  of  reckless,  adventurous  spirits  are 

be  c*ver.  I  want  the  mining  finished.  Let  all  work  that  will.  Left 
them  ravage  the  earth — extirpate  and  exterminate  the  mines.  Then 
the  sober  industry  will  begin  which  enriches  and  ennobles  a  nation. 
Work  as  hard  as  we  may  we  cannot  finish  soon."  Speech  of  Mr. 
Benton  in  the  Senate,  January  1^  1840. 


NEW    SCHEMES    OF   INVASION    AND    ANNEXATION.    201 

educated  and  instigated  in  times  of  war  to  such  a  pitch  of 
hardened  brutality,  that  they  learn  by  practice  to  love  to 
light.  They  are  intoxicated  with  the  excitements  of  battles, 
and  when  peace  is  declared,  they  have  become  so  enamored 
of  the  profession  of  the  soldier,  that  they  long  for  some 
new  occasion  for  wielding  the  sword  ;  it  matters  little  what 
the  justice  or  merits  of  the  cause  may  be,  provided  it  open 
a  theatre  for  bravery,  promotion  and  pay. 

In  accordance  with  these  principles,  we  find  that  the  sol 
diers  lately  embarked  in  the  Mexican  Foray,  are  many  of 
them  anxious  to  go  upon  another  human  hunt.  Some  of  them 
remained  in  Mexico,  and  enlisted  in  the  army  there.  Some 
of  them  returned  to  Vera  Cruz,  and  offered  their  services  to 
Yucatan  in  the  late  contest  with  the  Indians.  But  still 
others, — and  it  has  been  darkly  hinted  that  thousands  are  in 
terested  in  the  plan, — propose  to  renew  under  the  pretext 
of  "  a  Buffalo  Hunt  on  the  Rio  Grande,"  the  process  of 
Mexican  dismemberment,  and  erect  a  new  republic  out 
of  the  provinces  between  the  Si  era  Madre  and  that  River, 
at  first  designed  to  be  independent,  but  afterwards  to  fall 
into  the  hands  of  the  United  States  as  ripe  fruit  from  the 
tree.  The  press  has  been  full  of  rumors  on  the  subject. 
Information  was  requested  by  Congress  from  the  President 
of  the  United  States  in  relation  to  the  expedition  ;  to  which 
he  replied  that  he  had  no  official  information  that  any  citizen 
or  citizens  of  the  United  States  were  planning  to  revolu 
tionize  any  part  of  Mexico. 

But  however  this  particular  plan  may  be,  it  is  sufficiently 
evident  to  all,  that  this  war  has  given  our  countrymen  a 
taste  for  national  aggrandizement,  that  will  ask  for  more  and 
more.  When  the  wild  beast  has  dipped  his  tongue  in  blood, 
he  rages  for  new  prey.  The  strong  passions  that  have 
been  quickened  by  this  conquest  will  not  soon  subside. 
The  Sierra  Madre  republic  may  become  an  exploded  idea, 
but  not  so  the  ambition  and  reckless  spirit  of  adventure  and 


202    NEW    SCHEMES    OF   INVASION    AND    ANNEXATION. 

free-booting  out  of  which  it  sprang.  Intimations  have  been 
given,  in  quarters  entitled  to  serious  consideration,  that  Cuba 
would  be  a  desirable  and  easy  acquisition  for  the  United 
States.*  The  present  spirit,  if  long  indulged,  will  become 

*  The  following  document,  which  came  out  several  months  after  the 
text  was  written,  proves  that  the  fears  expressed  there  have  not  been 
groundless. 

PROCLAMATION. — BY   THE    PRESIDENT   OF    TUB  UNITED  STATES. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  an  armed  expedition  is  about  to  be 
fitted  out  in  the  United  States  with  the  intention  to  invade  the  Island 
of  Cuba,  or  some  of  the  provinces  of  Mexico ;  the  best  information 
which  the  Executive  has  been  able  to  obtain,  points  to  the  Island 
of  Cuba  as  the  object  of  this  expedition.  It  is  the  duty  of  this 
Government  to  observe  the  faith  of  treaties,  and  to  prevent  any 
aggression  by  our  citizens  upon  the  territories  of  friendly  nations. 

I  have  therefore  thought  it  necessary  and  proper  to  issue  this  pro 
clamation  to  warn  all  citizens  who  shall  connect  themselves  with  an 
enterprise  so  grossly  in  violation  of  our  treaty  obligations  that  they 
will  thereby  subject  themselves  to  the  heavy  penalty  denounced 
against  them  by  our  acts  of  Congress,  and  will  forfeit  their  claim  to 
the  protection  of  their  country.  No  such  persons  must  expect  the  in 
terference  of  this  Government  in  any  form  in  their  behalf,  no  matter 
to  what  extremities  they  may  be  reduced,  in  consequence  of  their 
conduct. 

The  enterprise  to  invade  the  territories  of  a  friendly  nation,   set 
on  foot  and  prosecuted  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States,  is  in  the 
highest  degree  criminal,  as  tending  to  endanger  the  peace  and  com 
promise  the  honor  of  the  nation.    And  therefore  I  expect  all  good 
citizens,  as  they  regard  our  national  reputation,  as  they  respect  our 
laws,  and  laws  of  other  nations,  as  they  value  the  blessing  of  peace  and 
the  welfare  of  their  country,  to  discourage  and  prevent,  by  all  lawful 
means,  any  such  enterprise,  and  I  call  upon  every  officer  of  this  Gov 
ernment,  civil  or  military,  to  use  all  efforts  in  his  power  to  arrest  for 
trial  and  punish  every  such  offender  against  the  laws  providing  for  the 
performance  of  our  sacred  obligation  to  friendly  powers. 
Given  under  my  hand  the  llth  day  of  August,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
,one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  forty-nine,  and  74th  of  the  inde 
pendence  pf  the  United  States. 

Z.  TAYLOR. 
J.  M.  CLAYTON,  Secretary  of  State. 


KETV    SCHEMES    OP   INVASION   AND    ANNEXATION.    203 

a  perfect  lust  of  conquest,  and  overrun  the  continent,  if  not 
the  world.  The  fascinating,  but  vfalse  idea  of  political  pro- 
pagandism  may  vet  wreck  our  fairest  hopes,  if  it  be  not 
seasonably  checked  by  an  appeal  to  right  and  truth.  God 
grant,  in  his  infinite  mercy,  not  for  our  sakes  only,  but 
for  the  cause  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,*  and  free  insti 
tutions  throughout  the  world,  and  the  progress  of  humanity, 
that  these  political  evils,  which  wTe  have  considered,  may 
so  far  be  counteracted  and  neutralized  by  the  zeal  and 
fidelity  of  the  friends  of  peace,  and  all  good  men,  that  we 
may  be  spared  from  disunion,  a  profligate  ambition,  and  a 
warlike  destiny  .f 

*  Who  can  fail  to  recognize  the  wisdom  of  the  remarks  of  Mr.  Pol 
lock  of  Pennsylvania  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  Jan.  26,  1847  ? 

i;  Do  gentlemen  desire  the  extension  of  our  civil  and  religious  privi 
leges  ? — the  pure  principles  of  republican  institutions  ?  The  influence 
of  our  example  will  accomplish  this  more  speedily  and  certainly  than 
the  bayonets  of  our  soldiery,  or  the  thunder  of  our  cannon.  You  may 
conquer  their  teritory,  but  you  cannot  compel  the  people  to  be  free  ; 
you  may  overthrow  existing  governments,  but  you  cannot  establish  by 
the  sword  a  system  of  se//-government.  Self-government  imposed  by 
force  upon  a  people  would  be  tyranny  to  them." — Printed  Speech, 
p.  5. 

t  A  bill  was  introduced  into  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  May 
4,  1848,  but  not  passed,  to  authorize  the  President  "  to  take  temporary 
military  occupation  of  Yucatan,"  now  the  scene  of  a  sanguinary  civil 
war  between  the  Spanish  and  Indian  portion  of  the  inhabitants.  A 
long  debate  ensued. 

Gen.  Scott,  senior  officer  in  command  in  the  American  Army,  wrote 
a  letter  in  1849,  approving  of  the  annexation  of  Canada  in  due  time 
to  the  United  States. 


304  MILITARY    GLORY. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

MILITARY    GLORY. 

"  The  drying  up  a  single  tear  has  more 

Of  honest  fame,  than  shedding  seas  of  gore." 

BYRON. 

"  BUT  glory,  glory !"  shout  the  defenders  of  the  war. 
"  Much  that  you  say  of  its  evils  may  be  true,  but  these  evils 
are  counterbalanced  by  a  greater  good.  The  war  with 
Mexico  has  won  for  our  army  and  country  a  European  re 
nown.  None  will  now  ask  where  are  the  United  States,  and 
what  have  they  done  ;  Monterey  and  Buena  Vista,  Vera 
Cruz  and  Cerro  Gordo  have  answered  that  question." 

The  reply  to  this  claim  of  glory  has  already  been  made 
in  part  in  chapter  seventeenth  on  the  subject  of  true  and  false 
national  honor.  But  the  noxious  spirit  of  military  ambi 
tion  among  individuals,  and  the  struggle  to  rise  by  the 
arts  of  war  instead  of  the  arts  of  peace,  have  been  increased 
by  the  late  events  ;  while  many  care  little  what  is  for  the 
honor  and  welfare  of  their  country,  provided  they  can  win 
fame  and  place. 

The  disposition  to  laud  military  heroes,  and  thus  falsify 
the  true  and  Christian  scale  of  intellectual  and  moral  great 
ness,  has  received  a  fresh  impulse  in  the  late  atrocious  war. 
The  great  men  in  these  United  States,  who  are  they  ?  Are 
they  the  poets  who  are  striking  the  finest  chords  of  the  celes 
tial  lyre,  and  awakening,  by  strains  of  sublimity  that  will  never 
die,  the  tastes  and  aspirations  and  immortal  energies  of  men 
of  all  generations  ?  Are  they  the  artists  who  are  shaping  the 


MILITARY    GLORY.  205 

marble  into  beauty,  and  giving  life  to  the  canvas,  and  thus 
reiining  and  elevating  the  soul  of  the  world  ?  Are  they  the 
orators  who  have  plead  for  liberty  with  angelic  tongue,  and 
urged  the  infinite  concerns  of  religion  with  a  melting  persua 
sion  ?  Are  they  the  princely  merchants  who  have  given 
their  tens  of  thousands  of  dollars  to  the  cause  of  education, 
and  the  welfare  of  a  hundred  ages  to  come  ?  Are  they  the 
retired  and  humble  scholars,  who,  poor  and  unnoted  by 
the  world,  trim  the  lamp  of  learning,  decipher  the  meaning 
of  life,  unroll  the  map  of  antiquity,  and  extract  the  wisdom 
of  libraries,  and  the  history  of  empires  gone?  No;  our 
great  men  are  not  poets,  nor  philosophers,  nor  philanthro 
pists,  nor  artists,  nor  judges,  nor  jurists,  nor  statesmen. 
Sad  day  is  it  for  humanity,  when  the  heroes  are  the 
destroyers,  and  hosannas  are  sung  over  ruined  cities  and 
sinking  nations,  to  those  whose  weapons  are  not  love  and 
truth,  but  fire  and  sword  ! 

Every  pains  is  taken  to  make  the  soldiers  and  officers  think 
that  they  are  the  greatest  and  best  of  their  day.  Doubtless 
they  have  often  acted  from  an  ardent  devoted  patriotism, 
and  had  good  intentions,  though  not  the  high  standard  of 
Christian  duty.  But  we  submit,  that  dinners  and  speeches, 
triumphal  arches  and  temples,  swords  and  other  costly 
presents,  honors  and  titles,  and  all  the  "  pomp  and  circum 
stance"  with  which  the  troops  and  their  officers  are 
welcomed  home  from  the  scene  of  their  terrible  work,  are 
calculated  to  start  the  germs  of  a  dozen  future  wars  in 
the  breasts  of  the  rising  generation,  and  to  make  our 
American  youth  think  that  nothing  is  so  glorious  as  war. 
Such  is  the  practical  lesson.  This  is  our  war-education. 

This  disposition  to  applaud  the  men  of  war,  and  to  raise 
them  to  the  highest  offices  in  the  State,  and  even  to  canonize 
their  memories,  as  if  they  were  also  the  brightest  orna 
ments  of  the  church,  has  been  conspicuously  seen  in  two 
celebrated  cases,  belonging  respectively  to  the  two  main 
18 


206  MILITARY    GLORY. 

political  parties  of  the  country.  Without  uttering  a  word 
to  stir  up  the  embers  of  strife  which  are  now  going 
out,  in  the  cold  ashes  of  the  dead,  we  are  nevertheless 
clear  in  the  belief  that  the  choice  of  men  from  the  battle 
ground  to  guide  the  majestic  counsels  of  a  free  Christian 
nation,  is  in  exceedingly  poor  taste,  bad  policy,  and  worse 
morality.  David  was  not  allowed  to  build  the  temple,  be 
cause  he  was  a  man  of  war ;  those  who  enter  our  consecrated 
temple  of  liberty  ought  to  have  pure  hands  and  clean  con 
sciences,  and  hearts  unspotted  of  their  brother's  blood,  else 
they  are  not  fit  for  that  place,  however  well  they  may 
be  qualified  for  some  other  station. 

One  objection  is,  that  it  is  to  employ  men  in  one  profes 
sion  who  have  been  serving  all  their  lives  in  another,  and 
very  different  one.  It  is  not  surely  a  wise  man  who  gets  his 
blacksmith  to  work  on  his  teeth,  or  hires  his  house-carpenter 
to  make  a  suit  of  clothes  ;  and  yet  there  is  really  as  little  or 
less  incongruity  in  these  respective  callings,  than  there  is  in 
appointing  military  men,  who  are  liable  to  be  despots  by 
the  very  nature  of  their  command,  to  manage  the  civil  con 
cerns  of  a  republic.  It  is  to  introduce  a  martial  spirit  and 
war  maxims  into  the  administration  of  national  affairs.  It 
is  to  pave  the  way  for  future  wars,  to  place  camp-schooled 
and  battle-trained  Presidents  in  the  White  House,  who  may 
hoist  a  flag  of  defiance  against  the  world,  and  who  will 
be  ready  to  foster  that  system  of  affairs,  in  whose  troubled 
waters  they  navigated  their  course  to  honor  and  renown. 
It  is  to  repudiate  still  longer,  and  to  hold  in  abeyance 
for  some  centuries  the  precepts  of  the  Prince  of  Peace. 
We  want  civilians,  not  swordsmen  ;  Catos,  not  Caesars,  nor 
Syllas  at  the  head  of  Christian  America.  If  our  hearts, 
and  our  consciences  were  alive  and  awake,  we  should  reject 
the  idea  with  horror  of  making  a  military  man  the  great 
man  of  the  nation,  and  enthroning  him  aloft,  as  our  grand 
representative  before  the  eyes,  either  of  Christendom  or 


MARTIAL    GLORY.  207 

heathendom.  We  virtually  should  say  by  such  an  act,  that 
is  our  highest  ideal  of  what  a  great  and  good  man  is  ;  that 
is  the  American  man. 

It  will  not  be  one  of  the  least  of  the  disasters  of  this 
Mexican  crusade,  that  it  adds  new  force  to  a  false  principle 
in  the  working  of  our  government,  and  opens  still  wider  to 
military  ambition,  not  only  its  peculiar  field  of  distinction, 
but  the  nobler  walks  of  civil  policy  and  national  statesman 
ship,  where  it  properly  has  no  part  nor  lot.*  It  is  time  that 
a  policy  which  is  too  manifest  in  its  evil  effects,  through  all 
past  history,  should  be  abandoned  forever  by  a  government 
of  the  people,  and  a  government,  therefore,  whose  great 
interest  is,  and  always  must  be,  Peace,  Peace. 

The  illustrious  Washington,  himself  a  warrior,  has  testi 
fied  against  war.  He  says  :  "  How  much  more  delightful  to 
an  undebauched  mind  is  the  task  of  making  improvements 
on  the  earth,  than  all  the  vain  glory  which  can  be  acquired 
from  ravaging  it  by  the  most  uninterrupted  career  of  con 
quests.  How  pitiful  in  the  eye  of  reason  and  religion, 
is  that  false  ambition  which  desolates  the  world  with  fire 
and  sword,  compared  to  the  milder  virtues  of  making  our 
fellow-men  as  happy  as  their  frail  condition  and  perishable 
natures  will  permit  them  to  be  !  It  is  time  for  night-er 
rantry  and  mad  heroism  to  be  at  an  end." 

The   true   patriot,  therefore,  is   he  who   not   only  cries, 

*  "  '  Tis  not  in  battles  that  from   youth  we  train 

The  Governor  who  must  be  wise  and  good, 

And  temper  with  the  sternness  of  the  brain 

Thoughts  motherly,  and  meek  as  womanhood. 

Wisdom  doth  live  with  children  round  her  knees  : 

Books,  leisure,  perfect  freedom  and  the  talk 

Man  holds  with  week-day  man  in  the  hourly  walk 

Of  the  mind's  business  :  these  are  the  degrees 

By  which  true  Sway  doth  mount ;  this  is  the  stalk 

True  power  doth  grow  on ;  and  her  rights  are  these." 

WORDSWOKTH. 


208  TRUE   DESTINY    OP    OUR    COUNTRY. 

peace,  peace,  but  earnestly  eschews  war.  He  most  honors 
his  native  land,  and  shows  himself  its  best  friend  and 
staunchest  defender,  not  who  pours  oil  on  the  war-flame, 
and  exhorts  the  young  men  to  fight  for  their  country,  "  right 
or  wrong,"  but  who  advocates  peace,  by  word  and  deed. 


CHAPTER    XX. 

THE    TRUE   DESTINY    OF   OUR    COUNTRY. 

"  Your  mission  was,  to  be  a  model  for  all  governments  and  for  all 
other  less  favored  nations ;  to  adhere  to  the  most  elevated  principles  of 
political  morality ;  to  apply  all  your  faculties  to  the  gradual  improve 
ment  of  your  own  institutions  and  social  state ;  and  by  your  example 
to  exert  a  moral  influence  most  beneficial  to  mankind  at  large.  Instead 
of  this,  an  appeal  has  been  made  to  your  worst  passions ;  to  cupidity, 
to  the  thirst  of  unjust  aggrandizement  by  brutal  force ;  to  the  love  of 
military  fame  and  false  glory ;  and  it  has  even  been  tried  to  prevent 
the  noblest  feelings  of  your  nature.  The  attempt  is  made  to  make 
you  abandon  the  lofty  position  which  your  fathers  occupied,  to  substi 
tute  for  it  the  political  morality,  and  heathen  patriotism  of  the  heroes 
and  statesmen  of  antiquity."  —  GALLATIN. 

ONE  of  the  evils  which  the  success  of  the  Mexican  inva 
sion  has  produced,  is  to  foster  the  pernicious  notion,  that  we 
are,  in  these  ambitious  movements,  following  out  our  des 
tiny.*  Men  have,  in  past  times,  committed  the  most  aborn- 

=*  "It  is  our  destiny  to  occupy  that  vast  region"  (Texas).  Mr.  Cal- 
houn  to  Mr.  King,  Aug.  12,  1844.  Append,  to  the  Cong.  Globe,  28th 
Cong.  2d  Sess.  p.  6.  When  Mr.  Adams  referred  to  Gen.  1 :  26,  27,  28, 
as  the  ground  of  the  American  title  to  Oregon,  he  was  asked  by  Mr. 
Kaufman  of  Texas,  if  it  would  not  apply  equally  well  to  the  Rio 
Grande. 


TRUE    DESTINY    OF    OUR    COUNTRY.  209 

inable  deeds  under  the  holiest  sanctions  and  pretexts.  The 
first  conquest  of  Mexico  was  achieved  at  an  awful  cost  of 
human  life,. under  the  plea  of  extending  the  kingdom  of 
Christ  and  the  church.  The  second  conquest  has  been  per 
petrated  under  the  audacious  assumption  of  fulfilling  the 
plans  of  Providence  by  extending  the  so-called  "area  of 
freedom,"  and  accomplishing  the  destiny  of  the  Anglo  Saxon 
race.  Many  words  are  not  wanted  to  expose  this  infatuation, 
as  it  has  already  been  handled  in  an  earlier  connection  of 
this  Review. 

There  is  a  genuine  Anglo  Saxon  destiny,  of  which  we  can 
conceive,  that  would  be  truly  glorious  in  itself,  and  beneficial 
to  mankind.  But  it  is  a  destiny  of  liberty,  not  of  license. 
It  is  a  destiny  of  peace,  not  of  war.  It  is  a  destiny  of  justice 
and  noble  ideas,  not  of  invasions  and  violent  annexations. 
It  is  a  destiny  whose  emblems  and  implements  are  not  the 
bomb  and  the  bowie-knife,  but  the  printing-press  and  the 
Bible.  It  is  a  destiny  of  raising  up  the  fallen  races,  and 
administering  wise  and  equal  laws,  wherever  our  dominion 
extends,  not  of  trampling  under  the  hoofs  of  the  war-horse 
the  prostrate  red  man,  black  man,  or  "  dark  browed  Mexi 
can."  Science,  commerce,  and  Christianity  have  given  Eng 
land  and  the  United  States,  the  two  Anglo  Saxon  powers, 
an  almost  immeasurable  influence  over  the  rest  of  the  human 
family.  But  God  has  put  this  sceptre  into  their  hands  for 
no  idle  and  vain-glorious  purpose,  but  to  promote  the  welfare 
of  mankind.  Did  the  grand  vision  of  a  true  and  providen 
tial  destiny,  the  real  mission  God  has  sent  them  to  accom 
plish,  dawn  upon  the  minds  of  our  statesmen  and  orators, 
our  rulers  and  people,  they  would  sheathe  the  sword  for 
ever.  They  would  "  trust  not  in  uncertain  riches,  but  in  the 
living  God  ; "  not  in  carnal,  but  spiritual  weapons.  This  is 
the  only  worthy  destiny;  the  only  one  that  heaven  will 
bless,  or  futurity  honor.  It  is  impious  to  talk  as  if  any 
people  were  fated  to  be  ambitious,  and  grasping,  and  a  terror 

18* 


210  TRUE   DESTINY    OF    OUR    COUNTRY. 

to  the  race,  and  not  a  blessing.  We  might  with  as  much 
propriety  say,  that  an  individual  was  destined  to  be  a  knave, 
or  a  ruffian.  The  Creator  has,  in  one  sense,  destined  all  his 
children  to  be  good  and  true,  to  obey  his  laws,  and  share  in 
his  promises.  "  He  is  not  willing  that  any  should  perish, 
but  that  all  should  come  unto  repentance."  But  men  have 
been  gifted  with  the  power  of  choice,  and  the  opportunity 
of  good  and  of  evil,  and  if  they  come  short  of  the  glory  of 
God,  they  may  be  said  to  have  frustrated  the  divine  plan, 
and  not  fulfilled  their  mission  and  destiny,  as  immortal  be 
ings. 

These  two  nations  are  capable,  if  they  have  grace  to  seize 
the  memorable  opportunity,  of  leaving  a  mark  upon  the  his 
tory  of  mankind,  "  above  all  Greek,  all  Roman  fame."  They 
can  make  themselves  felt  for  good,  —  we  yet  hope  that  in  a 
measure  they  are  doing  so,  —  to  the  remotest  isle  of  the  sea, 
and  to  the  savage  tribe,  whose  name  even  has  not  yet  been 
domesticated  in  a  civilized  tongue.  They  have  the  saving 
ideas  of  Science,  Freedom,  and  Christianity,  that  are  able, 
if  diffused,  to  keep  the  life-blood  flowing,  in  strong  and  pure 
tides  through  their  own  hearts,  and  also  to  stir  the  deep  sleep 
of  paganism  with  fresh  and  waking  pulses  of  regeneration. 
They  have  both  the  personnel,  and  the  materiel,  the'  ships, 
tools,  arts,  studies,  truths,  men,  to  do  this  magnificent  work. 
They  and  their  allies  of  kindred  European  races,  if  faithful 
to  the  high  vocation,  wherewith  they  are  called,  and  "  obe 
dient  to  the  heavenly  vision,"  can,  in  two  centuries,  change 
the  aspect  of  the  whole  habitable  globe,  and  make  the  soli 
tary  place  glad,  and  the  desert  blossom  like  the  rose. 

But  if,  abjuring  this  kingly  power  of  beneficence,  and 
turning  away  from  this  sublime  mission  of  realizing  the 
kingdom  of  Christ  on  earth,  they  bow  themselves  down  to 
the  base  uses  of  Mammon  and  of  Mars,  they  will  fling  away 
an  opportunity  of  usefulness,  such  as  has  been  rarely  afforded 
in  any  juncture  of  history.  If  they  consent  to  track  the  old 


TRUE    DESTINY    OF    OUR    COUNTRY.  211 

bloody  round  of  sordid,  guilty  ambition,  and  seek  not  to 
bring  other  tribes  and  races  under  the  obedience  of  God, 
and  harmony  with  his  laws,  but  in  subjection  to  their  own 
tyranny,  then  it  requires  no  prophet's  eye  to  foresee  that 
they  are  destined  to  fall  a  prey  to  the  same  passions,  suiei- 
dally  acting  on  themselves,  which  have  poured  the  vials  of 
wrath  upon  other  countries.  Their  prodigious  vices  will  be 
whips  enough  to  scourge  them.  The  immense  agencies 
which  might  have  proved  the  instruments  of  an  incalculable 
beneficence,  will  become,  when  perverted,  only  the  heavier 
millstones  about  their  necks  to  pull  them  down  to  perdition. 
Destiny  .is  a  fearful  word,  and  when  we  pronounce  it,  we 
remember  most  vividly  the  life  of  that  mighty  man  who 
called  himself  the  "  child  of  destiny,"  but  whose  star,  bril 
liant  as  it  was,  rushed  headlong  in  an  ill-fated  moment  from 
the  zenith  of  its  glory  into  eternal  night.  Imperial  as  the 
nations  are,  doth  not  the  Lord  "  sit  upon  the  circle  of  the 
earth,"  and  "  bring  the  princes  to  nothing,  and  make  the 
judges  of  the  earth  as  vanity"? 

To  use  an  astronomical  figure,  our  national  globe  has 
enough  centrifugal  impulse,  but  it  needs  more  centripetal 
tendency.  It  flies  round  and  round  with  fearful  sweep  and 
speed,  but  may  heaven  grant,  that  it  be  held  to  the  only  true 
centre  of  its  rotation,  God.  For  a  long  time  past,  we  have 
been  but  too  boastful  of  our  career,  as  if  we  could  run  any 
race  out  of  the  circumscription  of  the  Deity,  or  attain  any 
destiny  but  perdition,  unless  we  followed  his  eternal  ordi 
nances  and  achieved  his  plan,  and  not  our  own  caprice.  Blind 
and  foolish  indeed  must  AVC  be,  if  with  the  combined  lights 
of  history  and  Christianity  on  our  path,  we  see  any  other  or 
grander  destiny  for  ourselves  as  a  republic  than  that  of 
righteousness,  and  freedom,  and  peace.  "  Peace  hath  her 
victories  no  less  renowned  than  war."  If  the  Anglo  Saxons 
have  any  other  destiny  than  that,  let  them  beware  before 
they  run  upon  the  thick  bosses  of  those  bucklers  of  the 


212  TRUE   DESTINY    OF    OUR    COUNTRY. 

Almighty,  which  have  already  drank  up  the  blood  of  the 
proudest  victors.  God  keep  us  from  our  own  worst  passions 
under  a  sanctified  name ! 

Besides,  the  extension  of  our  arms  is  far  from  being  the 
extension  of  our  ideas.  We  are  far  from  believing  that  our 
armies  have  been  missionaries  of  liberty  or  the  cross  to  our 
semi-civilized  neighbors.  The  battles  they  have  fought  have 
not  been  the  triumphs  of  the  Prince  of  Peace.  The  thou 
sands  killed  will  not  be  regarded  as  martyrs  to  the  arts  and 
sciences.  The  blood  of  Buena  Yista  and  Cerro  Gordo  will 
not  prove  the  seed  of  a  new  civilization.  Battered  cities, 
and  ravaged  farms  are  not  the  most  significant  tokens  of  the 
march  of  improvement.  For  we  cannot  suppose,  that  Mex 
ico,  after  all  the  infinite  evils  and  sufferings  we  have  heaped 
upon  her,  will  love  us  or  our  institutions  any  better  than  she 
did  before.  We  have,  on  the  contrary,  violently  arrested  all 
those  gentle  and  irresistible  processes  of  assimilation  and 
amelioration  which  were  in  happy  progress,  and  taught  her 
children  to  curse  "  the  men  of  Northern  tongue."  No  ;  the 
voice  of  history  is  clear,  that  the  conquered  hate  the  conquer 
ors,  and  all  that  belongs  to  them,  and  very  reluctantly,  if 
ever,  will  they  adopt  their  religious  belief,  social  usages, 
forms  of  government,  arts,  and  sciences,  and  methods  of 
advancement,  except  by  stern  compulsion.  The  very  idea 
of  fighting  a  nation  into  a  love  of  progress,  is  preposterous. 
We  cannot  overlap  another  country  with  our  improvements, 
or  put  upon  one  civilization  the  party-colored  patch  of  an 
other.  The  spear  is  no  instrument  to  take  the  place  of  the 
pruning-hook,  nor  the  sword  to  do  the  work  of  the  plough 
share.  The  tree  of  civilization  withers  and  dies,  when 
watered  with  human  blood. 


THE  STATESMAN'S  RETRIBUTION.  213 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

THE  STATESMAN'S  RETRIBUTION. 

"  If  statesmen  were  more  accustomed  to  calculation,  wars  would  be 
much  less  frequent."  —  FRANKLIN. 

ROBERT  HALL  remarks  in  his  Reflections  on  War,  that, 
"  if  statesmen,  if  Christian  statesmen  at  least,  had  a  proper 
feeling  on  this  subject,  and  would  open  their  hearts  to  the 
reflections  which  such  scenes  must  inspire,  instead  of  rushing 
eagerly  to  arms,  would  they  not  try  every  expedient,  every 
lenient  art  consistent  with  national  honor,  before  they  ven 
tured  on  this  desperate  remedy,  or  rather,  before  they 
plunged  into  this  gulf  of  horrors  ?  "  None  but  an  affirma 
tive  answer  can  be  given  to  such  a  question.  But  the  diffi 
culty  is,  that  many  statesmen  are  not  Christians,  and  that 
they  do  not  have  a  proper  feeling  on  the  subject  of  Avar.  In 
deed,  as  a  general  rule,  it  is  not  warriors  that  make  war  in 
this  age,  so  much  as  it  is  statesmen.  Warriors  know  what 
war  is,  and  they  do  not  involve  nations  in  a  conflict  so  readily 
oftentimes  as  those  who  only  know  the  theory  of  war :  while 
statesmen,  sitting  at  their  ease,  in  cabinet  or  congress,  by  a 
vote  or  a  slip  of  the  pen,  gather  vast  armies  to  the  field,  and 
give  the  signal  for  great  nations  to  dash  themselves  against 
each  other  in  mighty  conflict.  They  have  little  proper  feel 
ing  of  the  waste  in  war  of  life,  treasure,  happiness,  virtue, 
liberty. 

They  know  not  what  they  are  doing,  or  if  they  know,  it 
is  a  dreamy,  misty,  distant,  and  unfelt  species  of  knowledge, 
that  does  not  press  with  any  motive-power  on  the  springs  of 


214  THE  STATESMAN'S  RETRIBUTION. 

action.  One  day's  hard  march  over  the  burning  plain,  one 
hour  of  Cerro  Gordo,  one  night's  fevered  watching  in  the 
hospital,  the  amputation  of  their  little  finger,  would  teach 
them  more  what  they  really  do  when  they  set  a  war  in  opera 
tion, —  its  wounds,  and  pains,  and  horrid  deaths,  —  than  the 
whole  experience  of  their  life-time.  "  I  have  read,"  said  an 
actor  at  Palo  Alto,  "many  accounts  of  battles,  but  never  a 
description  of  one." 

The  late  sanguinary  contest  was  originated  in  political 
causes,  as  already  demonstrated.  It  was  not  generals  but 
politicians  that  filled  the  magazine,  and  laid  the  fatal  train. 
There  was  a  huge  mass  of  combustible  war-passions  lying 
latent  and  ready  in  the  American  population,  but  they  are 
chiefly  responsible  at  the  bar  of  God  and  man,  who  wittingly 
and  deliberately  touched  the  explosive  spark.  Had  there 
been  any  "  proper  feeling "  in  the  great  body  of  American 
statesmen,  of  the  evils  and  guilt  of  war,  they  never  would 
have  voted  men  and  money  with  overwhelming  majorities  in 
both  houses  of  Congress  to  wage  a  distant  and  invasive  war 
fare  beyond  the  limits  of  our  own  country.  Many  of  those 
men  have  already  lived  to  lament  the  act  into  which  they 
were  betrayed  by  a  sudden  temptation,  and  many  others  will 
yet  live  to  see  the  day  when  they  shall  bitterly  deplore  that 
deed  of  darkness,  and  all  its  evil  consequences  to  their  coun 
try  and  the  world.  They  mistook  the  age  in  which  they 
lived,  -when  they  feared  to  be  called  peace-men.  They  did 
not  anticipate  the  glory  which  would  encircle  the  immortal 
sixteen,  "faithful  found  among  the  faithless."  If  ever  an 
earnest  rebuke  were  deserved  by  large  bodies  of  men,  it  is 
by  those  who  at  first  weakly  yielded  to  the  call  for  millions 
of  money  and  thousands  of  men,  and  voted  year  after  year, 
after  the  odious  schemes  of  conquest  and  slavery  were  dis 
closed,  still  to  uphold  such  a  system  of  wrong  and  wretched 
ness.  The  inconsistencies  of  political  men  and  parties  are 
tco  glaring  to  be  allowed  to  pass  without  notice  and  severe 


THE  STATESMAN'S  RETRIBUTION.  215 

condemnation.  Professing  freedom,  they  waged  a  war  to 
extend  slavery.  Calling  themselves  the  friends  of  the  people, 
they  sanctioned  and  supported  a  war  that  loaded  their  country 
with  a  heavy  war-debt,  and  sent  misery  into  multitudes  of 
once  happy  homes.  Putting  peace  forward  as  their  policy, 
they  have  been  contented  with  waging,  for  the  short  period 
of  its  continuance,  one  of  the  sharpest,  bloodiest,  and  most 
injurious  of  wars.  Advocating  universal  humanity,  and  the 
rights  of  man  as  men,  they  have  forced  our  free  institutions, 
as  we  call  them,  by  stress  of  arms  upon  large  portions  of  a 
foreign  land  and  a  foreign  people.  Such  palpable  and  flagrant 
violations  of  right  and  justice  will  bring  a  retribution  sooner 
or  later  to  the  authors  of  the  war,  and  will  involve  many 
of  the  innocent  with  the  guilty.  Men  of  place  and  power, 
exalted  as  their  position  may  be  in  the  sight  of  men,  are 
amenable  to  the  laws  of  God.  "  The  statesman's  retribu 
tion  "  is  no  empty  phrase,  but  expresses  a  most  solemn  and 
instructive  lesson  of  history. 

For  it  is  well  known  the  actual  effect  of  war  is,  that  instead 
of  raising  politicians  to  honor  and  authority,  it  puts  them 
very  unceremoniously  aside  to  make  way  for  the  elevation  to 
the  highest  civil  offices  of  those  who  have  fought  their  way 
to  fame.  The  revolutionary  war  furnished  one  warrior,  but 
more  a  civilian  than  a  warrior,  for  the  Presidency.  The  Avar 
of  1812  supplied  two  candidates  of  opposite  parties,  who 
entered  the  White  House  under  a  perfect  whirlwind  of 
enthusiasm.  The  war  with  Mexico  has  already  given  one 
incumbent  to  the  lofty  chair  of  state,  and  it  has  half  a  score 
of  others  in  expectancy.  Meanwhile,  the  great  statesmen  of 
the  country,  who  have  guided  by  their  wisdom  and  eloquence 
the  national  councils,  and  who  have  shed  an  intellectual  and 
historical  glory  over  the  pages  of  the  past,  and  who  will  live 
forever  on  the  tongues  of  men,  have  been  passed  by,  or  if 
raised  to  this  more  than  kingly  eminence,  have  occupied  it 
but  for  the  shortest  possible  period. 


216  THE  STATESMAN'S  RETRIBUTION. 

"  When  politicians  bring  on  war,"  says  the  North  American 
Review,  April,  1848,  "they  must  pay  the  penalty.  In  repub 
lics,  if  civilians  wish  to  retain  their  just  influence  as  states 
men,  they  must  preserve  peace.  War  always  has  given,  and 
always  will  give,  in  our  own  and  in  every  free  country, 
ascendency  to  military  reputation.  Snatching  the  prizes  of 
political  ambition  from  the  politician,  it  will  carry  the  suc 
cessful  general  to  his  seats  of  power.  Some  of  the  poli 
ticians  who  pushed  this  country  into  the  war  of  1812,  still 
live  to  brood  over  the  fact,  that  that  war  raised  up  military 
chieftains  who  clutched  from  their  grasp  the  presidential 
crown,  which  otherwise  would  have  encircled  their  brows  in 
sure  succession.  It  is  a  most  instructive  circumstance  in  our 
history,  that  when  James  Madison,  then  at  the  head  of  the 
government,  manifested  a  reluctance  to  favor  a  declaration 
of  war  with  England,  a  committee  of  three  was  despatched 
from  a  republican  caucus  to  communicate  to  him  the  deter 
mination  of  that  party  to  insist  upon  the  measure.  The 
experienced  wisdom  of  that  great  statesman  was  overruled, 
and  constrained  by  the  short-sighted  zeal  of  less  wary  poli 
ticians.  Of  that  caucus  Henry  Clay  and  John  C.  Calhoun 
were  the  master  spirits,  and  of  that  committee  they  were 
members.  Although  quite  young  men  they  had,  by  their 
genius  and  eloquence,  even  then  acquired  the  greatest  degree 
of  popularity  that  can  be  attained  in  the  sphere  of  states 
manship.  The  whole  nation  was  waiting,  with  admiring 
eagerness,  to  confer  upon  them,  one  after  the  other,  its  high 
est  honor.  They  had  their  way,  and  war  was  declared. 
When  the  revolutionary  series  of  Presidents  was  brought  to 
a  close,  on  the  retirement  of  James  Munroe,  Gen.  Jackson, 
the  hero  of  New  Orleans,  took  from  Mr.  Clay  so  many  of 
the  electoral  votes  of  the  West,  and  from  Mr.  Calhoun  so 
many  of  the  votes  of  the  South  and  Middle  States,  as  to 
leave  them  both  distanced  in  the  race.  The  popularity  of 
Jackson  yielded  only  to  that  of  General  Harrison,  the  hero 


217 

of  Tippecanoe ;  and  a  fresh  crop  of  military  chieftains  has 
just  been  reared,  to  destroy,  in  all  probability,  the  last  chance 
of  these  veteran  aspirants  for  the  great  prize.  It  is  not  the 
least  of  the  eminent  services  they  have  rendered  their  coun 
try,  that,  in  their  baffled  ambition,  the  distinguished  states 
men  and  truly  great  men  whom  we  have  named,  teach  to  all 
coming  times  the  salutary  lesson,  that,  if  politicians  will  have 
war,  they  must  step  aside  forever  from  the  path  of  honor, 
and  relinquish  the  posts  of  power  to  overshadowing  rivals, 
created  by  their  own  suicidal  hands.  It  is  not  unlikely,  that 
this  lesson  will  be  corroborated  by  the  political  results  of  the 
war  in  which  the  country  is  now  involved.  Let  us  hope  that 
it  may  make  a  deep  and  durable  impression  upon  that  class 
of  persons  whom  it  so  vitally  concerns.  When  the  leaders 
of  parties  become  convinced,  that  in  promoting  warlike 
measures  and  a  military  spirit,  they  are  digging  their  own 
graves,  we  confidently  rely  upon  perpetual  peace." 

The  same  general  rule  has  held  good  in  regard  to  a  host 
of  other  offices.  The  warrior  has  ever  taken  precedence  of 
the  statesman,  however  wise  or  great.  We  have  preferred 
men  of  action  to  men  of  thought,  and  have  cared  little  appar 
ently  what  their  actions  were.  Nothing  shows  more  dis 
tinctly  the  low  and  coarse  type  of  modern  civilization  than 
this  choice  of  warriors  to  conduct  the  affairs  of  Christian 
nations.  No  mistake  could  be  greater  than  for  civilians  to 
encourage  the  madness  of  war,  and  hope  in  times  of  turbu 
lence  to  rise  to  honor  and  place.  For  by  every  war  they 
foment  and  wage,  they  are  calling  into  existence  numbers  of 
popular  and  well-known  rivals,  who  will  easily  distance  them 
in  any  race  for  office.  However  well  educated,  large  in 
experience,  ripe  in  civil  wisdom,  eloquent  in  council,  sagacious 
in  trouble,  indefatigable  in  serving  the  country,  patriotic  in 
sentiment,  and  really  laboring  for  the  true  glory  of  the  land 
and  the  true  good  of  the  human  family,  the  mighty  orator, 
the  profound  statesman,  the  far-famed  jurist,  or  the  unsullied 

19 


218  TIIE  STATESMAN'S  RETRIBUTION. 

patriot  will  be  brushed  aside  from  the  path  to  honor  of  the 
successful  warrior,  as  if  he  were  a  mere  fly.  The  motto  at 
the  head  of  this  chapter  is  significant.  When  will  politicians 
learn  wisdom?  When  will  they  pause  before  they  make 
wars,  vaiiily  hoping  thus  to  gain  popularity  with  their  coun 
trymen?  When  will  they  cease  to  be  instrumental  of  the 
bold  incongruity  of  mingling  the  despotism  of  war  with  the 
working  of  free  institutions,  and  the  professions  of  a  Chris 
tian  people  with  the  morality,  manners,  and  spirit  of  the 
camp  ?  When  will  they  open  their  eyes  to  the  fact,  that  so 
far  as  they  encouraged  the  spirit  of  war  in  their  countrymen, 
they  are  preparing  trouble  and  ruin  for  the  days  to  come ; 
that  they  are  going  counter  at  once  to  the  dictates  of  repub 
licanism  and  Christianity ;  that  they  are  reversing  the  pro 
gress  of  the  world,  and  bringing  back  the  ages  of  darkness 
and  blood  ?  And  when,  especially,  will  they  learn  that  im 
pressive  lesson  of  the  past,  that  statesmen  however  eminent, 
legislators  however  sagacious,  diplomatists  however  success 
ful,  and  jurists  however  learned,  will  stand  no  chance  in  the 
competition  for  political  honors  and  office  with  him  who  has 
smelt  gunpowder?  The  highest  admonitions  of  patriotism 
and  religion  thus  combine  with  the  lowest  of  self-interest  to 
warn  them  against  the  folly  and  the  wickedness  of  seeking 
to  make  our  country  a  great  military  power. 

Let  them  strive  to  repress  and  calm  the  mania  for  war  in 
our  land.  Let  them  direct  the  energies  of  a  youthful  nation 
into  the  channels  of  industry  and  public  improvement.  Let 
them  understand  that  it  will  be  no  honor  or  happiness  for 
us  to  attempt  to  live  over  the  warlike  past  of  the  old  world, 
and  acquire  war-debts,  war-taxes,  and  war-customs,  that  will 
make  the  remotest  generations  groan  and  curse  us  for  our 
foolishness.  Oh,  let  the  great  men  of  our  country  under 
stand,  that  if  they  would  be  truly  great,  and  would  live  in 
the  glad  remembrance  of  their  countrymen,  they  must  ally 
themselves  to  lofty  principles  and  causes,  —  Freedom,  Peace, 


WAR   MAXIMS.  219 

Temperance,  Righteousness,  Truth,  —  which  will  survive 
the  transient  excitements  of  the  day,  and  the  little  questions 
of  party  and  place,  and  bear  on  the  names  of  their  advocates 
to  be  loved  and  reverenced  by  generations  jnt  unborn.  For 
as  the  intellectual  and  moral  life  of  mankind  is  more  devel 
oped,  and  the*  spiritual  aim  of  the  Gospel  is  more  nearly 
reached,  the  true  benefactors  of  the  race  will  be  more  and 
more  associated  with  this  new  era  of  progress,  while  the 
names  of  those  who  proved  false  to  the  high  trust  of  their 
times,  and  basely  consented  to  the  iniquities  which  have 
blasted  the  life  and  happiness  of  successive  nations  and  races 
in  history,  will  be  held  in  deserved  and  perpetual  execration, 
as  the  real  traitors  to  their  country  and  its  institutions,  who 
were  willing  for  a  mess  of  pottage  to  sell  the  birthright  of 
Freedom,  and  the  Hope  of  the  world. 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

TVAR   MAXIMS. 

"  To  spoil,  to  slaughter,  and  to  commit  every  violence;  and  then  call 
the  manoeuvre  by  a  lying  name,  —  government;  and  when  they  have 
spread  a  general  devastation,  —  call  it  peace."  —  TACITUS. 

MOST  men  desire  to  maintain  some  consistency  of  charac 
ter  and  conduct,  and  hence,  in  order  to  justify  the  doing  of 
such  deeds,  as  we  have  recorded,  they  appeal  to  certain  prin 
ciples  like  the  following.  "  Our  country,  right  or  wrong ; "  * 
or,  as  paraphrased  by  a  distinguished  general,  "  between  my 
government  and  a  foreign  nation,  I  never  ask  a  question. 

*  Commodore  Decatur. 


220  WAR   MAXIMS. 

My  government  is  always  right."  "  Conquer  a  peace ; " 
"  Do  evil  that  good  may  come."  Make  war  on  Mexico  that 
we  may  extend  "the  area  of  freedom,"  and  civilize,  and 
Protestantize  h  jr.  To  all  such  principles  it  is  enough  to 
reply,  that  they  are  good  enough  as  secondary,  but  not  as 
supreme  motives  of  conduct.  Our  first  and  highest  relation 
is  to  God,  and  our  first  duty,  therefore,  is  to  ask,  "  Lord, 
what  would'st  thou  have  us  do  ?  "  Christ  is  a  greater  name 
than  country.  lie  must  pronounce  upon  all  social  customs 
and  public  affairs,  and  what  he  condemns,  is  condemned,  and 
what  he  approves,  is  approved  by  all  his  faithful  followers. 
We  are  not  allowed  to  make  our  country  our  god,  though  we 
are  bound  to  do  her  good  service.  The  only  difference  of 
opinion  is,  what  is  good  service  to  her?  Is  it  to  encourage 
and  assist  her  in  a  wicked  and  barbarous  war,  and  to  fan  the 
war-spirit  to  greater  intensity,  or  is  it  to  check  her  going 
headlong  in  a  heaven-defying  career  of  conquest  and  usur 
pation  ?  He  does  most  to  keep  her  fame  untarnished,  not 
who  fights  her  unjust  battles,  but  who  preserves  her  truth, 
and  justice,  and  freedom  from  becoming  obsolete  ideas  in 
the  working  of  her  institutions.  Jesus  said,  "  he  that  loveth 
father  or  mother  more  than  me,  is  not  worthy  of  me."  Even 
the  tenderest  social  relations  were  less  to  be  regarded  than 
the  spiritual  claims  of  his  faith  and  love ;  then  how  much 
more  would  he  have  said  the  same  of  the  ties  of  country. 
They  are  good,  but  not  the  best ;  they  are  great,  but  not  the 
greatest. 

This  wronging  of  conscience  and  sophistication  of  reason 
by  the  maxims  of  this  war  are  not  the  least  of  the  ill  effects 
to  which  it  has  given  birth.  How  many  have  adopted  the 
maxim,  "  our  country,  right  or  wrong,"  can^t  be  known, 
but  it  has  had  a  wide-spread  currency  and  popularity.  The 
ancient  doctrine,  "  the  king  can  do  no  wrong,"  *  has  been 

*  King  Henry  V.  in  disguise  and  three  soldiers.] 

K.  Henry.  "Methlnks  I  would  not  die  any  where  so  contented  as  in 
the  king's  company  ;  his  cause  being  just  and  his  quarrel  honorable. 


\ 

WAR    MAXIMS.  221 

supplanted  by  another  maxim  every  way  as  fatal  to  a  Chris 
tian  manhood.  If  we  are  to  be  ruled  by  a  tyrant,  whose 
behests  must  be  obeyed  at  whatever  sacrifice  of  individual 
scruples  and  remonstrances  of  conscience,  it  matters  little 
whether  that  tyrant  be  called  "  king,"  or  "  country."  A 
democracy  may  oppress  as  well  as  a  monarchy.  If  we  pro 
ceed  upon  the  principle,  that  we  are  under  obligations  to  do 
whatever  our  rulers  command,  be  it  an  act  of  pillage  or 
blood,  not  because  it  is  right,  but  because  they  command  it, 
then  we  are  back  again,  as  to  all  practical  intents  and  pur 
poses,  in  the  age  of  passive  obedience  and  blind  adhesion  to 
authority,  slaves,  tools,  of  the  make-plots  and  the  mar-plots 

Will.     "  Tli at 's  more  than  we  know. 

Bates.  "Ay,  or  more  than  we  should  seek  after;  for  we  know 
enough,  if  we  are  the  king's  subjects :  if  his  cause  he  wrong  our  obe 
dience  to  the  king-  wipes  the  crime  of  it  out  of  us. 

Will.  "But  if  the  cause  be  not  good,  the  king  himself  hath  a  heavy 
reckoning  to  make ;  when  all  those  legs  and  arms,  and  heads  chopped 
off  in  battle,  shall  join  together  at  the  latter  day  and  cry  all,  '  We  died 
at  such  a  place ; '  some  swearing,  some  crying  for  a  surgeon ;  some, 
upon  their  wives  being  left  poor  behind  them ;  some  upon  the  debts 
they  owe ;  some  upon  their  children  rawly  left.  I  am  afcared  there  are 
few  die  well,  that  die  in  battle ;  for  how  can  they  charitably  dispose  of 
any  thing  when  blood  is  their  argument?  Now  if  these  men  do  not 
die  well,  it  will  be  black  matter  for  the  king  that  led  them  to  it,  whom 
to  disobey  were  against  all  proportion  of  subjection. 

K.  IL-nrij.  "  Then  if  they  die  unprovided,  no  more  is  the  king  guilty 
of  their  damnation  than  he  was  before  guilty  for  those  impieties  for 
Avhicli  they  arc  now  visited.  Every  subject's  duty  is  the  king's;  but 
every  subject's  soul  is  his  own.  Therefore  should  every  soldier  in  the 
wars  do  as  every  sick  man  in  his  bed,  wash  every  moth  out  of  his  con 
science  :  and  dying  so,  death  is  to  him  an  advantage  ;  or  not  dying, 
the  time  was  blessedly  lost,  wherein  such  preparation  was  gained :  and, 
in  him  that  escapes,  it  were  not  sin  to  think,  that  making  God  so  free 
an  offer,  he  let  him  outlive  that  day  to  see  his  greatness,  and  to  teach 
others  how  they  should  prepare. 

Will.  u  'T  is  certain  that  every  man  that  dies  ill,  the  ill  is  upon  hia 
own  head,  the  king  is  not  to  answer  for  it."  —  Shakspeare. 

19* 


222  AVAR    MAXIMS. 

of  the  men  in  power.  In  foisting  such  a  saying  into  the 
mouths  of  men  at  this  day,  and  getting  it  into  a  newspaper 
immortality,  tyranny  has  stolen  a  march  upon  freedom,  and 
free  institutions  become  but  a  name  u  to  point  a  moral,  or 
adorn  a  tale."  The  old  spirit  has  revived  under  a  new  name. 
We  are  to  have  not  the  tyrant  One,  but  the  tyrant  Million, 
who  may  be  quite  as  intolerable,  and  quite  as  subversive  of 
that  true  liberty,  which  respects  the  rights  of  conscience,  as 
the  dearest  object  of  life,  and  the  last  a  moral  being  would 
consent  to  relinquish.  If  we  are  to  uphold  our  country  in 
her  wrong,  as  in  her  right  principles  and  measures,  farewell 
to  the  prerogatives  of  an  American,  the  patrimony  of  free 
men.  We  are  then  a  nation  of  slaves. 

Was  it  not  for  these  same  rights  of  conscience,  that  the 
toil  and  treasure  of  the  past  have  been  freely  lavished  ?  Was 
it  not  for  this  birthright  of  the  soul  that  our  fathers  fled  their 
country,  lived  in  exile,  crossed  the  ocean,  made  the  wilder 
ness  their  home,  and  companied  with  wild  beasts,  and  wilder 
men  ?  What  nobler  staple  runs  through  the  history  of  the 
past  than  this  sturdy,  lofty  independence  for  conscience'  sake  ? 
This  is  the  glory  that  still  lingers  on  many  a  spot  of  the  old 
world,  and  makes  holy  ground  of  many  a  battle-field,  tomb, 
and  church,  where  wise  and  holy  men  lifted  up  the  voice  of 
non-conformity  to  the  acts  of  tyrants,  and  dared  all,  and  lost 
all,  for  the  sake  of  keeping  "  a  conscience  void  of  offence." 
And  shall  this  new  world,  in  her  virgin  promise,  repudiate 
the  single  glorious  principle  which  sheds  such  splendid  renown 
over  the  darkest  scenes  of  history  ?  The  names  of  Huguenot, 
and  Covenanter,  and  Puritan  are  not  lightly  thus  to  be  taken 
in  vain. 

Instead  of  this  blind  and  unquestioning  devotion  to  "  coun 
try,  right  or  wrong,"  or  rather  to  the  existing  government  of 
the  country,  for  we  believe  that  a  majority  of  the  American 
people  were  always  hostile  to  the  war,  how  much  more  truly 
noble  and  Christian  it  would  have  been  for  the  officers,  who 


WAR    MAXIMS.  223 

were  opposed  to  the  invasion,  and  many  of  the  leading  ones 
were,  to  say;  "we  will  defend  our  country  when  she  is 
attacked ;  "but  our  duty  can  never  require  of  us  to  go  on  a 
warfare  of  conquest.  This  is  not  the  purpose  of  government, 
and  especially  of  our  government,  which  is  to  secure  the 
rights,  and  protect  the  lives,  and  liberty,  and  property  of  all. 
We  can  fight  in  a  defensive,  but  not  in  an  offensive  war ;  in 
a  defence  of  freedom,  but  not  in  a  crusade  for  slavery.  We 
will  rather  imitate  the  example  of  Lord  Eflingham  in  the 
British  army,  and  Capt.  Thrush  in  the  navy,  and  retire  from 
the  service,  than  wound  our  consciences,  and  really  wrong 
our  country  by  encouraging  those  who  hold  her  destinies  in 
their  hand,  to  plunge  into  a  career  of  rapine  and  blood.  If 
this  be  treason,  make  the  most  of  it.  It  is  better  to  rebel 
against  our  country  than  against  our  God." 

If  our  country  be  wrong  in  her  internal  policy,  or  admin 
istration  of  civil  national  affairs,  does  any  press  or  person 
hesitate  a  moment  to  condemn  the  wrong,  and  uphold  by 
word  and  deed,  by  the  potent  weapon  of  a  freeman,  the 
ballot-box,  the  cause  of  the  right  ?  No,  never.  Why  then 
should  so  different  a  rule  obtain  in  international  affairs? 
Are  not  the  questions  of  war  and  peace  as  momentous,  as 
needful  to  be  determined  by  the  principles  of  right,  as  the 
measures  of  tariffs,  internal  improvements,  or  sub-treasury  ? 
The  same  laws  bind  us  as  citizens  that  bind  us  as  men.  If 
we  are  not  at  liberty  to  do  wrong  as  men,  we  are  not  at 
liberty  to  do  so  as  Americans.  If  it  would  be  wrong  to  up 
hold  an  evil  among  ourselves,  because  it  is  the  voice  of  the 
government,  which  is  not  always  the  voice  of  the  people  at 
the  time,  and  which  is  often  far  from  being  the  voice  of 
God,  shall  we  advocate  the  idea  of  vindicating,  even  to  the 
death,  our  country's  course,  when  we  openly  avow,  or  strongly 
suspect,  she  is  in  the  wrong  ?  Never,  never.  "  For  what 
shall  it  profit  our  country,  if  it  gain  the  whole  world  at  the 
expense  of  its  soul?" 


224  WAR   MAXIMS. 

To  "  conquer  a  peace,"  *  another  phrase  often  used,  if  it 
have  any  ordinary  meaning,  signifies  to  destroy  a  peace,  and 
overthrow  it.  During  two  long  years  of  blood,  and  rapine, 
and  demoralization,  did  this  war  subjugate  the  powers  of 
peace.  But  at  the  last  the  sword  settled  nothing.  Nego 
tiation  was  more  powerful  than  eight  een-pounders.  The 
pen  of  the  commissioner  was  mightier  than  the  sword  of  the 
conqueror.  Two  wise  men  from  Mexico  and  the  United 
States,  meeting  amicably  together,  could,  upon  the  basis  of 
the  late  treaty,  have  easily  secured  to  the  United  States, 
in  the  way  of  a  business  transaction,  all  the  territory  she 
wanted  by  means  of  the  bonus  of  $20,000,000  she  has  now 
paid,  without  shedding  one  drop  of  human  blood.  The  like 
has  been  done  before,  and  it  might  have  been  done  again. 

"  Take  away  the  sword, 
States  can  be  saved  without  it." 

Some  other  phrases  referred  to  have  been  considered  in 
other  connections  of  this  review,  but  we  turn  to  another  war- 
maxim. 

The  coat-of-arms  of  Great  Britain  has  the  motto,  with 
heraldic  devices,  "JDieu  et  mon  droit"  "  God  and  my  right,'* 
flanked  by  a  lion  on  one  side  and  a  unicorn  on  the  other. 
But  where  would  Great  Britain  be,  if  she  were  treated  her 
self  on  the  principle  which  she  thus  holds  forth  as  the  high 
est  expression  of  the  spirit  of  her  government?  Suppose 
the  nations  of  the  world  should  insist  on  the  utmost  claims 
of  right  with  her,  where  would  be  most  of  her  riches  and 
possessions  ?  What  would  be  the  result  of  carrying  out  such 
a  doctrine  in  the  world  but  eternal  war  ?  Observe  that  it  is 

*  Coleridge  is  said  to  be  the  original  author  of  this  self- contradictory 
phrase.  Shakspeare  better  says, 

"•  A  peace  is  of  the  natare  of  a  conquest  j 
For  then  both  parties  nobly  are  subdued, 
And  neither  party  loser." 


WAR    MAXIMS.  225 

not  God  and  right,  but  my  right ;  not  yours,  but  mine  ;  that 
selfish  word,  my.  I  will  have  my  rights,  whether  you  have 
yours  or  not.  I  will  yield  nothing,  conciliate,  compassionate 
nothing,  but  exact  sternest  justice. 

So,  likewise,  we  have  a  much  commended  saying  among 
us,  that  we  "  will  ask  for  nothing  which  is  not  right,  and 
will  submit  to  nothing  which  is  wrong."  Then  we  cannot 
live  in  this  world.  For  we  are  often  obliged  to  forego  our 
rights,  often  obliged  to  yield  to  what  is  wrong  in  others. 
What  would  be  our  condition  as  a  nation,  as  individuals,  if 
we  were  treated  one  day  by  God  as  we  propose  in  this  rude 
and  barbarous  justice  to  treat  mankind  ?  We  should  not  be 
at  all.  We  should  be  non-existent.  For  we  hang  upon  the 
skirts  of  the  divine  compassion ;  we  live  at  the  momentary 
merciful  will  of  our  God.  If  he  treated  us  as  we  deserve, 
and  were  strict  to  mark  our  iniquities  against  us,  who  could 
stand  before  him  ?  Could  we  as  a  people  ?  could  we  as 
individuals?  Not  one  moment.  We  are  not  so  careful  to 
render  to  others  their  dues  and  their  rights,  as  not  often  to 
need  their  pardon  for  the  wrong ;  we  are  not  so  particular 
in  our  conduct  towards  our  Supreme  Judge,  as  not  daily  and 
hourly  to  need  his  forbearance.  We  are  to  claim  our  right, 
but  not  with  wrong ;  we  are  not,  Shylock-like,  to  practise 
on  a  blind  and  inexorable  justice  alone.  The  apostle  assures 
us  that  sometimes  mercy  is  to  rejoice  against  judgment ;  at 
any  rate,  that  he  is  in  imminent  danger  of  having  judgment 
without  mercy,  who  has  shown  no  mercy.  It  is  a  fearful 
declaration,  and  should  make  us  pause,  before  we  say  that 
we  will  submit  to  no  wrong ;  else  we  commit  ourselves  to  a 
principle  at  war  with  nature,  providence,  and  the  whole 
structure  of  human  society. 

In  truth,  a  great  proportion  of  the  difficulties  in  the  world 
arise  from  this  disposition  to  vindicate  our  own  rights,  let 
whose  rights  else  suffer,  and  to  push  matters  to  the  utmost 
verge  of  lawful  allowance,  rather  than  to  pursue  '\  mild  and 


226  WAR    MAXIMS. 

forbearing  policy.  "We  are  men,  mortal,  erring,  sinful. 
Who  are  we,  to  judge  another  man's  servants  ?  Who  are 
we,  to  take  into  our  hands  the  blazing  thunderbolts  of  ven 
geance  ?  "  Dearly  beloved,  avenge  not  yourselves,  but  rather 
give  place  to  wrath." 

We  profess  to  be  a  Christian  nation,  and  we  would  feel 
aggrieved  if  we  were  denied  this  honorable  name.  And 
what  is  the  law  of  our  master,  and  how  do  we  obey  it  ?  Is 
it  not  mercy,  pardon,  forbearance,  forgiveness,  from  one  end 
to  the  other  of  the  Gospels  ?  Did  he  not  enrol  it  among  the 
beatitudes  ?  "  Blessed  are  the  merciful,  for  they  shall  obtain 
mercy."  Did  he  not  say  with  emphatic  reiteration,  "  Bless 
them  that  curse  you,  and  pray  for  them  that  despitefully  use 
you?"  Did  he  not  command  us  to  " forgive  our  enemies, 
and  to  be  merciful  as  our  father  in  heaven  is  merciful?" 

In  short,  it  is  right  to  be  merciful,  according  to  Chris 
tianity  ;  it  is  not  a  weakness,  but  a  duty.  It  is  right  some 
times  to  yield  to  a  w^rong,  and  overlook  it,  rather  than  com 
mit  a  greater  wrong  by  resistance  and  exaction.  It  is  right 
sometimes  to  waive  our  rights,  and  generously  to  suffer  our 
selves,  rather  than  to  make  others  suffer,  though  they  deserve 
it.  It  is  not  weakness,  but  strength,  not  shame,  but  honor, 
to  forgive,  not  seven  times  only,  but  seventy  times  seven,  if 
the  offender  turn  and  pray  to  be  forgiven. 

We  cannot  better  conclude  this  chapter  than  by  briefly 
adding,  to  what  has  been  elsewhere  said  on  the  subject 
of  preparing  war  by  preparing  for  war,  the  late  remarks 
of  the  Earl  of  Aberdeen,  formerly  Secretary  of  State  for 
Foreign  Affairs,  in  the  House  of  Lords,  in  England,  —  "I 
am  disposed  to  dissent  from  that  maxim  which  has  been  so 
generally  received,  that,  'if  you  wish  for  peace,  you  must 
be  prepared  for  war.'  It  may  have  applied  to  the  nations  of 
antiquity,  and  to  society  in  a  comparatively  barbarous  and 
uncivilized  state,  when  warlike  preparations  cost  but  little ; 
but  in  the  state  of  society  in  which  we  now  live,  when  the 


MARTIAL    LITERATURE.  227 

warlike  preparations  of  great  powers  are  made  at  enormous 
expense,  I  Fay  that  so  far  from  their  being  any  security  to 
peace  they  are  directly  the  contrary,  and  tend  at  once  to 
war.  For  it  is  natural  that  men,  having  adopted  means 
they  think  efficient  to  an  end,  should  desire  to  put  their 
efficiency  to  the  test,  and  to  have  some  direct  result  from 
their  labor  and  expense." 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

MARTIAL     LITERATURE. 

"  Seven  years'  fighting  sets  a  whole  kingdom  back  in  learning  and 
virtue  to  which  they  were  creeping,  it  may  be  a  whole  age." — JEREMY 
BEXTHAM. 

"  The  course  of  education  from  infancy  to  manhood,  at  present  pur 
sued,  tends  to  inspire  the  mind  with  military  ardor  and  a  love  of 
glory.  Almost  as  soon  as  a  boy  is  born,  care  is  taken  to  give  his  mind 
a  military  turn." — WILLIAM  LADD. 

WE  have  before  us  a  list  of  forty-eight  volumes,  which  are 
connected  with  the  late  war,  and  which  generally  approve 
highly  of  its  occurrence.  They  consist  of  both  prose  and 
poetry,  history  and  biography,  travels  and  essays.  They 
are  deeply  imbued  with  the  martial  spirit,  and  laud  to  the 
skies  the  achievements  of  the  American  arms  in  Mexico. 

One  of  the  unhappy  consequences  of  this  war  is,  that  it 
has  thus  created  a  literature  adverse  to  morals,  refinement 
and  religion.  This  war-literature  has  circulated  through 
the  newspapers  and  cheap  works  over  the  whole  land. 
The  lives  of  victorious  generals,  the  bloody  feats  of  prowess, 


228  MARTIAL     LITERATURE. 

the  histories  of  battles  and  sieges,  have  formed  a  good  part 
of  the  reading  of  the  mass  of  the  people,  and  especially  of 
many  young  persons,  during  the  three  past  years.  The 
sacred  power  of  poetry  has  been  desecrated  to  laud  the  cruel 
deeds  of  war.  The  historian  has  exhausted  upon  it  all 
his  research.  The  fine  arts  have  been  employed  to  pamper 
the  love  of  war,  and  by  pictures  and  panoramas,  to  set  on 
fire  the  blood  of  youth  with  the  intoxicating  passion  of  mar 
tial  achievements.  The  country  is  full  of  these  things. 
Every  village  has  its  "  views  "  of  battles,  and  the  siege  at 
Vera  Cruz,  or  the  charge  at  Buena  Vista.  The  eye  of  youth  is 
taught  to  sparkle  at  the  sight  of  a  battle-piece,  before  it 
knows  what  war  is.  The  natural  effect  upon  society  of  such 
reading,  and  war-songs,  and  exhibitions  is  exceedingly  unfa 
vorable  to  all  the  leading  moral  interests  of  a  free  country. 
It  places  before  the  individual  a  false  standard  of  character, 
and  cheats  him  into  the  belief  that  the  best  end  of  life 
is  to  figure  in  some  important  scene,  to  do  some  great  thing, 
however  wrong  or  bloody,  and  to  disown  the  quiet  pur 
suits  of  peace.  It  places  before  the  nation  a  wrong  standard, 
and  befools  the  people  with  the  idea  that  war,  and  not 
peace,  is  their  real  interest,  that  they  shall  gain  some 
valuable  end  by  invading  the  domains  of  their  neighbors, 
and  conquering  a  vast  extent  of  barren  and  unhealthy  terri 
tory.  The  idea  of  the  true  destiny  of  our  country  in  liberty, 
equality  and  self-government,  has  by  this  miasma  of  war 
been  corrupted  into  the  false  idea  of  our  destiny  as  con 
sisting  in  power,  military  renown,  and  the  vulgar  guilt  of 
the  savage  nations  of  old,  or  the  unbaptized  empires  of 
modern  Europe. 

The  news  of  war,  the  descriptions  of  cities  taken,  of  vic 
tories  won,  of  men  killed,  are  of  a  poisonous  moral  influence. 
They  paganize  a  Christian  people.  They  familiarize  them 
with  carnage  and  cruelty.  They  make  them  forget  the 
sermon  on  the  mount,  and  the  prayer  on  the  cross.  They 


MARTIAL     LITERATURE.  229 

fill  the  heads  and  hearts  of  the  young  with  perverted  notions 
of  right  and  wrong,  and  educate  them  in  their  day  and  gene 
ration  to  be  men  of  blood.  No  nation  ever  came  out  of 
war  but  with  a  lowered  standard  of  moral  principle,  and 
an  increased  amount  of  profligacy,  and  an  augmented  num 
ber  of  drunkards,  vagabonds,  gamblers,  and  wretched,  ruined 
men. 

At  the  present  day,  when  the  people  almost  univer 
sally  read,  the  evil  of  such  a  literature  is  greatly  enhanced. 
It  is  so  cheap  that  all  can  buy  it.  It  is  so  diffused,  that 
it  enters  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  land.  It  is  so  stimu 
lating  to  the  curiosity  and  passions  of  half-educated  minds, 
that  they  find  it  invested  with  all  the  charms  of  romance. 
Indeed  not  less  than  half  a  dozen  novels  of  the  cheap  kind, 
independently  of  the  histories  and  biographies  above  enume 
rated  ;  have  already  taken  their  plots  and  incidents  from 
the  war  with  Mexico.  Nor  has  this  military  literature  by  any 
means  exhausted  itself.  The  advertising  columns  show  that 
it  has  new  productions  in  reserve.  The  seed  of  future  wars 
has  thus  been  sown  broadcast  over  our  country,  and  wrong 
impressions  have  been  made  upon  thousands  of  young 
and  ductile  minds  which  will  never  be  effaced. 

The  numerous  war-speeches  in  and  out  of  Congress,  the 
voluminous  war-documents  issued  from  the  capital  of  the 
country,  and  the  public  journals  spreading  before  the  eyes  of 
millions  of  readers  the  "  glorious  news  from  Mexico,"  the 
l'  great  victory  won,"  all  belong  to  this  noxious  species 
of  literature.  For  unless  accompanied  with  proper  correc 
tives  and  remonstrances,  they  pervert  the  moral  principles 
of  the  people,  arouse  their  passion  for  arms,  and  withdraw 
their  interest  and  attention  from  those  humble  but  praise 
worthy  pursuits  of  agriculture,  commerce,  and  manufactures, 
which  cannot  compete  with  the  brilliant  exploits  of  sieges 
and  battles,  "  in  pomp  and  circumstance."  "  The  pesti 
lence  that  walketh  in  darkness  and  the  destruction  that 
20 


230  MARTIAL     LITERATURE. 

wasteth  at  noonday"  have  been  abroad  in  our  land,  and 
gathered  from  city  and  country  the  fearful  harvest  of  death  ; 
but  better,  far  better,  that  an  annual  cholera  should  deci 
mate  our  population,  than  that  the  deadly  malaria  of  such  a 
literature  should  infect  the  mind  and  corrupt  the  heart  of 
America.  The  evil  in  one  case  is  death  to  the  body,  but 
in  the  other  it  is  death  to  Freedom,  death  to  the  progress  of 
Peace,  and  death  to  the  hopes  of  the  world.  Vast  and 
beneficent  is  the  influence  of  a, pure  and  elevated  literature; 
but  when  the  historians  and  orators  of  a  nation  contribute 
by  their  works  to  foster  the  spirit  of  war  and  the  pagan  pas 
sion  of  glory,  they  are  calling  back  the  dark  ages  of  blood 
and  oppression  again  to  overshadow  the  earth.  Many  a 
splendid  lyric  from  the  poet's  burning  soul,  many  a  persua 
sive  appeal  from  the  speaker's  inmost  heart,  have  gone  forth 
against  this  war.  We  are  thankful  for  these  indignant 
remonstrances  against  evils  that  could  not  be  arrested.  But 
let  us  pray,  if  for  one  thing  more  unceasingly  than  another, 
that  the  literature  and  the  fine  arts  of  America  may  be  res 
cued  from  following  the  example  of  the  old  world,  and  that 
they  may  consecrate  their  glorious  creations  of  genius  and 
beauty  to  the  God,  not  of  war,  but  of  Peace.  Let  them 
adopt  the  noble  motto  of  Allston,  "  No  battle-pieces." 


WAR   AND    THE    FIRESIDE.  231 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

WAR  AND  THE  FIRESIDE. 

"  The  tramp  of  marching  hosts  disturbs  the  plough, 
The  sword,  not  sickle,  reaps  the  harvest  now, 
And  where  the  soldier  gleans  the  scant  supply, 
The  helpless  peasant  hut  retires  to  die  ; 
No  laws  his  hut  from  licensed  outrage  shield, 
And  war's  least  horror  is  th'  ensanguined  field. 
Fruitful  in  vain,  the  matron  counts  with  pride 
The  hlooming  youths  that  grace  her  honored  side, 
No  son  returns  to  press  her  widowed  hand, 
Her  fallen  blossoms  strew  a  foreign  strand." 

MRS.  BARBAULD. 

REGARDING,  as  we  do,  the  domestic  relations  of  life  as 
the  appointment  of  heaven  for  the  education,  and  happiness 
of  mankind,  and  home  as  the  centre  of  some  of  the  purest 
and  happiest  influences  known  in  society,  we  come  now  to 
consider  the  Mexican  war  in  its  bearing  on  these  great 
interests  of  the  respective  countries  involved  in  the  conflict. 
The  preceding  chapters  have  already  told  a  part  of  the  tale. 
But  the  subject  is  one  of  sufficient  moment  to  deserve  a 
separate  consideration.  "  The  war  and  the  fireside"  need  to 
be  brought  into  direct  juxtaposition,  that  all  the  wickedness 
of  the  one  may  be  revealed  in  the  light  and  blessedness  of 
the  other.  When  Satan  approached  the  Garden,  where 
dwelt  the  happy  pair,  the  mighty  poet  represents  him  as 
clothing  himself  in  the  most  seductive,  but  most  fatal,  guise. 
War  puts  on  its  most  specious  garb  of  honor,  patriotism, 
and  freedom,  when  it  comes  to  take  away  the  pillars  and 


232  WAR    AND     THE    FIRESIDE. 

ornaments  of  the  Christian  home,  but  it  allures  only  to 
betray,  and  promises  but* to  disappoint.  Its  vast  multitudes 
of  warring,  desperate  men,  are  all  sons,  many  of  them 
fathers,  and  husbands,  most  of  them  brothers.  They  not 
only  bear  the  dreadful  implements  of  destruction,  and  the 
badges  of  their  respective  corps,  but  they  carry  in  every 
feature  and  outline  of  body  some  hereditary  trace  of  an  en 
deared  parentage,  some  look  of  the  fireside,  some  habit 
of  home.  These  beings  are  not  fiends  and  devils,  though, 
when  they  are  plunged  in  the  hurricane  of  the  battle-field, 
they  might  be  so  regarded  by  a  spectator  from  some  other 
planet,  unfamiliar  with  the  proceedings  of  men  upon  our 
earth.  In  that  dense  array  of  armed  men  meet  the  diverg 
ent  lines  of  ten  thousand  happy  firesides  ;  the  cords  of  love 
from  some  far-distant  log-cabin,  or  refined  family,  are  pulling 
at  the  hearts  of  the  embattled  host,  and  nothing  rises  so 
vividly  to  memory,  while  they  hang  over  the  giddy  risks  of 
life  and  death  before  them,  as  the  dear  ones  that  they  have 
left  behind,  perhaps  forever.  "  "War  and  the  fireside"  ! 
how  contrasted,  and  yet  how  connected  !  One,  the  name  of 
every  thing  most  awful  in  passion,  pain,  vice,  outrage,  and 
death ;  the  other,  the  name  of  all  the  sweetest  joys,  hopes, 
possessions  and  associations  out  of  heaven. 

And  when  the  fight  is  over,  humanity  once  more  re- 
assumes  her  sway,  and  returns  to  the  field  where  thousands 
lie  dead,  thousands  in  the  agonies  of  death,  and  thousands  in 
the  ten-fold  agonies  of  life,  disputing  with  death  the  posses 
sion  of  her  subjects.  As  the  hand  of  kindness  raises  this 
soldier's  gory  head,  what  word  does  he  murmur  ?  It  is, 
wife,  mother,  sister  !  As  the  blood  gurgles  from  the  shot- 
hole  in  the  side  of  that  dragoon,  and  every  pulsation  grows 
fainter,  what  whispered  syllables  still  linger  and  tremble  on 
the  convulsed  lips  ?  They  are,  father,  brother,  son.  O 
God,  we  devoutly  ejaculate,  when  we  see  or  think  of  such 
scenes,  can  this  be  the  work  of  thy  human  children,  and  of 


WAR   AND    THE    FIRESIDE.  233 

brothers  one  of  another  ?  Can  the  tender  frames  that  were 
once  borne  in  a  mother's  arms,  and  nursed  at  a  mother's 
breast,  have  made  the  living  breast-work  against  the  cannon's 
mouth  ?  Can  the  hand  that  once  grasped  a  tenderer  hand, 
and  vowed  the  vow  "  for  better  for  worse,  for  richer  for 
poorer,"  now  swing  the  cleaving  sword,  or  urge  the  piercing 
bayonet  ?  War  has  brought  all  these  horrors  to  pass  ;  and 
when  its  dead  are  buried,  and  its  sick  collected  in  the  hospi 
tal,  then  it  sends  back  to  the  lovely  places  of  domestic 
happiness  the  heart-rending  intelligence  of  its  dear  bought 
victories,  or  bloody  defeats,  and  fills  a  whole  land  with  lam 
entation  and  tears.  Every  mail  carries  its  sorrow  to  some 
household.  Every  newspaper  records  the  bereavement  of 
some  fond  wife,  some  aged  father,  some  widowed  mother, 
some  orphan  children.  And  into  myriads  of  once  happy  circles 
where  the  messenger  of  the  ill  tidings  of  death  never  comes, 
he  nevertheless  sends  the  perpetual  chill  of  gloomy  fears 
arid  forebodings,  and  keeps  every  ear  on  the  alert  to  hear  a 
sinister  step,  every  heart-string  quivering  with  the  anguish  of 
hope  deferred,  or  torn  by  tidings  of  sickness,  or  wounds,  or 
captivity. 

And  then,  putting  aside  all  these  considerations  of  the 
heart,  which  all  that  have  hearts  must  feel,  how  positively 
does  war  wage  a  universal  hostility  against  every  physical 
and  economical  interest  of  home.  It  induces  reckless  habits, 
and  spendthrift  ways.  It  squanders  on  the  extra  finery  of 
the  uniform  or  the  equipments,  what  would  fill  the  larder,  or 
give  a  book  to  a  child,  or  a  quarter's  tuition  at  school.  It 
raises  the  taxes  already  high,  and  ill  borne.  It  withdraws 
the  prop  and  best  workman  of  the  family  to  waste  his  sinews 
in  a  remote  country.  It  returns  the  halt,  the  lame,  the 
blind,  the  maimed,  the  sick,  to  be  nursed  and  cared  for  the 
remainder  of  their  days.  It  leaves  many  a  \vidowed  and 
orphan  group  to  the  tender  mercies  of  a  cold  and  un 
feeling  world.  And  it  hands  down  to  succeeding  ages  the 
20* 


234:  WAR     AND    THE     FIRESIDE. 

legacy  of  its  debts,  taxes,  expensive  vices,  pension  list,  sine 
cures;  and  its  immoral  histories  of  violence,  blood,  and 
outrage,  to  sow  the  seeds  of  trouble  in  new  bridal  homes, 
and  fling  a  shadow  of  gloom  over  the  firesides  of  the  third 
and  fourth  generations. 

The  following  reflections,  after  "  a  famous  victory,"  by 
one  of  the  most  popular  editors  and  writers  of  the  country, 
are  as  feeling  and  beautiful  as  they  are  true  and  melancholy. 
Why  cannot  those  who  make  war  "  think  of  these  things," 
before  they  set  in  operation,  by  a  few  strokes  of  the  pen, 
such  an  engine  of  domestic  wretchedness  and  ruin  ? 

"  Every  battle  field,"  says  the  Louisville  Journal,  "  is  the 
source  of  inexpressible  grief,  and  woe,  and  agony.  To  say 
nothing  of  the  gory  victims  that  on  such  fields  yield  up  their 
latest  breath,  who  shall  attempt  to  portray  the  agony  that 
must  pierce  the  hearts  of  their  surviving  friends  ?  The  battle 
of  Buena  Vista  may  be  consecrated  to  fame,  and  poets  may 
hymn  its  glories,  and  attune  their  harps  to  sing  the  praise 
of  its  survivors,  and  to  chant  mournful  requiems  over  the 
graves  of  the  gallant  dead ;  but  that  bloody  field  will  also 
be  consecrated  to  human  woe.  Each  one  of  the  thousand 
that  were  martyred  to  the  fell  spirit  of  war,  had  his  friends, 
by  whom  his  loss  will  be  mourned.  Many  fathers  there  fell, 
leaving  helpless  children  to  struggle  with  the  stormy  tides 
of  life,  without  the  protection  of  the  parental  arm.  Many 
husbands  there  died,  leaving  trusting  wives  to  lament  in 
bitterness  of  soul  their  loss.  The  dearly-beloved  sons  of 
hoary-headed  sires  there  sighed  their  last  breath  away,  to  be 
mourned  awhile  and  soon  to  be  followed  to  the  land  of  spirits 
by  those  to  whom  their  loss  is  irreparable.  When  we  reflect 
on  the  desolation  that  will  be  carried  to  thousands  of  fire 
sides,  —  the  gloom  that  will  hang  like  a  cloud  over  number 
less  homes,  lately  bright  with  the  hues  of  happiness,  —  tJie 
tears  of  orphans,  the  shrieks  of  wives,  and  mothers,  and  sis 
ters,  the  groans  of  fathers,  and  eons,  and  brothers,  —  the 


WAR    AND    THE    FIRESIDE.  235 

wide-spread  and  lasting  grief  that  will  result  from  the  car 
nage  of  the  field  of  Buena  Vista,  what  heart  can  refuse  its 
sympathy  with  the  bereaved,  or  refrain  from  cursing  the 
infatuation  w Inch  renders  such  scenes  of  blood  necessary  ?" 

"  You  could  tell  at  a  glance,"  says  Capt.  Henry,  in  his 
"  Campaign  Sketches,"  "  the  wounded  of  Palo  Alto  or  Ilesaca 
de  la  Palma.  The  latter  were  mostly  bullet  wounds;  the 
amputated  limbs  told  of  the  cannon's  fearful  execution  in  the 
former.  Beside  one  poor  fellow  a  beautiful  girl  of  seventeen 
was  seated,  keeping  oft'  the  flies.  She  was  his  wife.  In 
another  corner,  a  family  group,  the  mother  and  her  children 
were  seated  by  the  wounded  father.  One  bright-eyed  little 
girl  quite  took  my  fancy,  and  my  heart  bled  to  think  that 
thus  early  she  should  be  introduced  to  so  much  wretched 
ness.  On  one  bed  was  a  corpse ;  on  another  was  one  dying, 
holding  in  his  hand  the  grape-shot  that  had  passed  through 
his  breast.  He  showed  it  to  us  with  a  sad  countenance.  I 
left  the  hospital  shocked  with  the  horrors  of  Avar." 

"  On  the  field  of  Resaca  de  la  Palma,"  says  Mr.  Thorpe, 
"  there  was  an  affecting  scene  enacted  among  the  dead  sol 
diers.  One  of  the  first  that  fell  mortally  wounded  was  an 
Irishman,  —  a  remarkably  brave  fellow.  All  the  night  ensu 
ing,  his  poor  wife  sat  upon  the  field,  the  stiffened  corpse  of 
her  husband  resting  on  her  lap,  her  little  child  asleep  by  her 
side.  As  the  sun  rose  in  the  morning,  she  was  discovered, 
surrounded  with  the  dead,  her  head  upon  her  husband's 
breast,  absorbed  in  grief.  As  the  day  wore  on,  the  stench 
of  the  field  became  offensive ;  but  still  she  held  her  seat  by 
the  side  of  the  lifeless  clay,  and  in  paroxysms  of  overwhelm 
ing  sorrow  she  was  torn  from  the  dead,  that  it  might  be  con 
signed  to  its  mother  earth." 

Speaking  of  the  houses  where  the  wounded  were  placed 
at  Matamoras,  he  says  ;  "  amidst  all  their  misery  and  deso 
lation,  amidst  these  places  so  humbling  to  pride,  so  sacrificing 
to  vanity,  woman  was  there,  devoted  to  a  husband  or  a  broth- 


236  .     WAR   AND    THE   FIRESIDE. 

er ;  she  sat  in  the  dust,  fanned  away  the  torturing  insects 
that  lived  on  blood,  and  revelled  in  wounds,  sanctifying  the 
most  menial  offices  by  her  spirit  and  influence,  and  shedding 
by  her  smiles,  by  her  silent  attentions,  by  her  teachings  of 
hope  in  another  world,  the  only  bright  rays  that  are  seen  to 
glimmer  in  a  Mexican  hospital." 

Speaking  of  another  battle,  he  writes,  "  appalling  indeed 
were  the  scenes  on  that  field  of  carnage.  Many  of  the 
wounded  writhed  in  agony,  and  others,  quiet  in  their  last 
hour  of  life,  gazed  with  anxious  eyes  towards  the  setting 
sun ;  their  faces,  in  the  morning  glowing  with  health,  were 
now  wan  as  if  with  months  of  consuming  disease.  All  begged 
but  for  one  drop  of  water  to  quench  the  thirst  that  consumed 
their  vitals.  Along  the  pathway  of  the  shot  that  fairly 
raked  through  the  solid  columns  of  the  Tennessee  regiment, 
lay  extended  the  dead  in  every  conceivable  position  of  hor 
ror  ;  headless  trunks,  and  limbless  bodies  cut  in  twain.  The 
faces  of  some  wore  the  placid  smile  of  happiness ;  in  others, 
the  life-blood  had  ebbed  away,  leaving  the  expression  of 
defiance  and  revenge  marked  upon  the  inanimate  clay.  The 
wounded  strove  to  creep  about,  or,  thrown  hurriedly  into 
wagons  to  be  conveyed  to  the  surgeons,  were  in  despair  for 
their  condition ;  for  they  well  knew  that  war  permitted  no 
care  for  their  condition,  no  thought  for  their  relief,  no  gentle 
sympathy  for  their  pain,  and  before  them  was  wasting  dis 
ease,  perhaps  lingering  death.  Far  from  home,  no  assiduous 
friend,  no  affectionate  sister,  no  loving  mother  soothed  their 
anguish.  The  poor  private  died  unnoticed  and  unknown, 
yet  by  some  quiet  hearthstone,  far  from  the  tumult  of  cities, 
tears  will  be  shed  for  his  full ;  the  stern  old  father  will  nerve 
himself  to  his  loss,  by  the  thought  that  the  sacrifice  was  made 
for  his  country,  while  the  aged  mother's  heart  bleeds  with  a 
wound  time  cannot  heal.  To  such  retreats  must  we  go,  if 
we  would  learn  all  the  suffering  that  resulted  from  that  scene 
before  the  walls  of  Monterey.'* 


WAR   AND    THE    FIRESIDE.  237 

It  was  in  reference  to  another  battle,  that  Whittier  com 
posed  the  noble  poem,  entitled,  "  the  Angels  of  Buena  Vista," 
founded  on  the  following  facts. 

"  A  letter  writer  from  Mexico  states,  that  at  the  terrible 
fight  of  Buena  Vista,  Mexican  women  were  seen  hovering 
near  the  field  of  death,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  aid  and 
succor  to  the  wounded.  One  poor  woman  was  surrounded 
by  the  maimed  and  suffering  of  both  armies,  ministering  to 
the  wants  of  Americans  as  well  as  Mexicans,  with  impartial 
tenderness." 

We  give  a  few  of  the  concluding  stanzas  of  this  melting, 
pathetic  ballad. 

"  Look  forth  once  more  Ximena !  "    "  Like  a  cloud  before  the  wind 
Ivolls  the  battle  down  the  mountains,  leaving  blood  and  death  behind  ; 
Ah  !  they  plead  in  vain  for  mercy;  in  the  dust  the  wounded  strive; 
Hide  your  faces,  holy  angels !  oh,  thou  Christ  of  God,  forgive ! 

"  Sink,  0  night,  among  thy  mountains  !  let  thy  cool,  gray  shadows  fall; 
Dying  brothers,  fighting  demons  —  drop  thy  curtain  over  all! 
Through  the  quickening  winter  twilight,  wide  apart  the  battle  rolled  ; 
In  his  sheath  the  sabre  rested,  and  the  cannon's  lips  grew  cold. 

"  But  the  holy  Mexic  women  still  their  holy  task  pursued, 
Through  that  long,  dark  night  of  sorrow,  worn  and  faint,  and  lacking 

food, 

Over  weak  and  suffering  brothers  with  a  tender  care  they  hung, 
And  the  dying  focman  blessed  them  in  a  strange  and  Northern  tongue. 

"  Not  wholly  lost,  0  Father !  is  this  evil  world  of  ours ; 
Upward  through  its  blood  and  ashes,  spring  afresh  the  Eden  flowers  ; 
From  its  smoking  hell  of  battle,  Love  and  Pity  send  their  prayer, 
And  still  thy  white-winged  angels  hover  dimly  in  our  air  ! " 

The  personal  narratives  from  trustworthy  sources  are  intro 
duced  in  this  review  of  the  Mexican  war,  as  revealing  to  us 
more  distinctly  than  whole  pages  of  general  description 


238  WAR    AND    THE    FIRESIDE. 

could  do,  the  indescribable  and  infinite  miseries  which  alight 
upon  the  homes  of  warring  nations.  We  have  much  more 
of  the  same  materials  on  hand,  but  these  must  suffice,  and 
perhaps  more  than  suffice.  We  have  already  "  supped  full 
of  horrors." 

War  is  indiscriminate.  It  confounds  the  innocent  with 
the  guilty  in  one  fate,  or,  it  may  be,  spares  the  bad  to  in 
volve  the  righteous  man  in  ruin.  It  burns  the  widow's  cot 
tage,  while  it  may  leave  unharmed  the  tyrant's  palace.  It 
kills,  perchance,  the  father's  only  son,  the  staff  of  his  old 
age,  and  lets  the  assassin  and  robber  escape  with  impunity. 
Fearful,  therefore,  beyond  the  power  of  human  thought,  is 
his  act  who  takes  the  responsibility  of  involving  two  nations 
in  its  wide-spread  havoc.  What  is  it  but  to  assume  for  the 
moment  the  powers  of  the  Omnipotent  without  his  wisdom 
and  mercy  ?  to  vault,  as  it  were,  into  his  seat,  and  let  fly  the 
armies  of  devouring  locusts,  or  lift  the  lid  of  the  boiling 
volcano,  and  inundate  cities  with  floods  of  fire  and  lava,  or 
rock  the  land  with  earthquakes,  and  overwhelm  multitudes 
of  human  beings  beneath  the  ruins  of  falling  temples  and 
dwellings  !  When  will  the  rulers  and  legislators  of  the 
nations  awake  to  their  awful  accountableness  in  being  either 
principals  or  accessories  to  bringing  on  a  war  ? 

How  shockingly  mal  apropos  and  incongruous  was  that 
sentiment  given  by  some  orator  on  a  festive  occasion  to  some 
companies  parading  for  their  departure  to  the  fields  of  Mex 
ico,  —  "  Washington,  our  homes,  and  our  country  !"  For,  to 
omit  other  considerations,  we  have  seen  in  this  and  the  last 
chapter  before  it,  that  the  warfare  against  the  foreign  foe  is 
suicidal ;  that  the  sword  is  two-edged,  and  cuts  us  as  well  as 
our  enemies.  The  recoil  of  every  blow  struck  abroad  is 
upon  some  dear  breast  at  our  own  fire-side,  of  father,  bro 
ther,  son,  lover,  friend.  The  huzzas  of  every  triumph  have 
been  reechoed  by  the  groans  and  shrieks  of  wives,  mothers, 
orphans,  bereft,  distracted,  penniless,  friendless.  Into  how 


WAR   AND    THE   FIRE  SIDE.  239 

many  circles  of  the  wise  and  good,  the  prosperous  and  power 
ful,  has  the  messenger  of  heavy  tidings  come !  Into  how 
many  lowly  homes  and  cabin  doors  has  the  grim  image 
stalked,  and  youth,  and  manhood,  and  age,  bowed  in  speech 
less  agony  at  his  coming !  The  son  of  a  Clay  or  a  Webster 
has  fallen  by  the  side  of  the  poor  and  obscure  man's  son. 
Tell  us  not  of  famine.  There  is  no  mutual  strife,  but  the 
strife  of  self-sacrifice.  Tell  us  not  of  cholera.  There  is  no 
hand  wet  with  a  brother's  blood,  "  smelling  rank  to  heaven." 
But  in  both  instances  there  is  help  rendered  by  the  weak 
and  sick  to  those  weaker  and  sicker  than  themselves.  There 
is  the  sharing  of  the  last  potato  with  the  famishing.  There 
is  danger  dared  to  give  but  a  cup  of  medicine  to  the  suffer 
ing.  There  is  heavenly  pity  bending  writh  moist  eye  over 
the  hungry  she  cannot  feed,  and  over  the  sick  she  cannot 
cure.  There  is  godlike  charity,  with  folded  hands  and  up 
raised  face,  invoking  that  aid  from  God  which  man  cannot 
yield. 

But  it  adds  immeasurably  to  the  patriotic  compunction 
with  which  an  American  should  look  on  this  war,  when  we 
consider  that,  terrible  as  may  have  been  the  scenes  of  be 
reavement,  destitution,  and  distraction  at  our  own  fire-sides, 
and  amid  "the  pleasant  places,"  the  beautiful  abodes,  of 
civilized  and  Christian  life,  we  have  been  busy  actors,  as 
well  as  stricken  sufferers.  We  have  invaded  the  homes  of 
another  nation.  We  have  smitten  down  young  and  old, 
man  and  woman,  rich  and  poor,  sick  and  well,  in  the  relent 
less  conquest.  Verily,  we  have  been  guilty  in  this  matter, 
and  our  brother's  blood  cries  against  us  from  the  ground 
where  it  has  been  spilled.  The  poor  cot,  the  rich  hacienda, 
the  bishop's  palace,  the  church  of  God,  the  halls  of  a  repub 
lic,  have  been  entered,  plundered,  bombarded,  burnt.  In 
deed,  could  a  fallen  spirit  be  imagined  as  hovering  over 
Mexico  in  the  character  of  its  evil  genius,  and  devising  an 
extended  system  of  wrong  and  suffering,  a  huge  and  com- 


240  THE   VICES    OF   THE    CAMP. 

plicated  machine  of  exquisite,  and  multiplied,  and  far-reach 
ing  cruelties,  one  that  should  do  the  greatest  possible  evil 
with  the  least  possible  good;  one  that  should  pierce  the 
most  hearts,  tarnish  the  most  honor,  wring  forth  the  most 
groans,  darken  the  most  hearths,  and  set  a-going  the  most 
prolific  causes  of  sin  and  wretchedness  in  every  direction, 
and  to  the  worst  imaginable  issues,  then  we  should  recognize 
with  a  shudder  our  own  country  as  the  evil  genius  of  un 
happy  Mexico,  and  war  as  the  infernal  engine  with  which 
we  have  worked  her  nameless  and  numberless  evils.  And 
when,  in  addition  to  the  essential  evil  of  this  instrument  of 
woe,  the  evil  genius  be  supposed  artfully  to  veil  its  abomin 
ations  with  the  gorgeous  drapery  of  the  stars  and  stripes, 
and  to  seduce  into  its  unholy  service  the  flower  of  youth  and 
the  vigor  of  manhood,  to  operate  at  the  engine's  crushing 
wheels  and  dislocating  pullies,  the  picture  of  that  Briarean 
Inquisition  we  call  WAR  would  be  complete. 


CHAPTER   XXV. 

THE   VICES    OF    THE    CAMP. 

"  We  have  heard  much  of  the  corrupting  tendency  of  some  of  the 
rites  and  customs  of  the  heathen ;  but  what  custom  of  the  heathen 
nations  had  a  greater  effect  in  depraving  the  human  character,  than 
the  custom  of  war."  —  NOAH  WORCESTER. 

"  War  produces  the  characters  necessary  for  war.  The  camp  is 
infectious.  The  few  who  go  there  virtuous,  if  they  return  at  all, 
generally  return  vicious,  and  carry  the  infection  into  our  peaceful 
hamlets  and  the  bosom  of  families."  —  WILLIAM  LADD. 

MANY  of  the  battles  of  the  Mexican  war  were  fought 
wholly  or  partly  on  the  Sabbath.  At  Monterey,  Sacra- 


THE    VICES    OF    THE    CAMP.  241 

mento,  Cerro  Gordo,  Chapultepec,  and  Mexico,  more  or 
less  of  the  fighting  was  done  on  the  Lord's  day.  While  the 
assemblies  of  Christians,  all  over  the  earth,  were  met  to 
gether  to  hear  the  word  of  God,  confess  their  sins,  and  seek 
the  mercy  of  heaven  through  that  name  which  is  far  "above 
every  name  that  is  named,"  then,  in  those  hours  of  sacred 
rest,  devotion,  and  brotherly  love,  the  death-shots  were  fall 
ing  thick  and  fast,  the  storm  of  battle  was  sweeping  with 
resistless  fury  over  hundreds  of  the  wounded  and  dying,  and 
many  souls  cut  off  unprepared  and  in  the  midst  of  their 
days,  appeared  at  the  bar  of  a  righteous  God,  to  bear  wit 
ness  against  the  war-system  of  two  professedly  Christian 
nations.  Could  there  be  a  more  shocking  centre-temps  than  a 
desperate,  bloody  battle,  or  siege,  on  the  holy  day,  when 
God  has  said,  "  Thou  shalt  not  do  any  work,"  and  all  the 
noises  of  the  earth  should  be  hushed,  and  man  should  "  be 
still  and  know  that  I  am  God  ?"  The  only  conceivable  case 
is  a  fight  on  Christmas.  The  battle  of  Bracito  was  fought 
on  the  generally-received  anniversary  of  that  greatest  era  in 
the  world's  history,  when  angels  from  heaven  sang  the  birth- 
anthem  of  the  Saviour  of  men,  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  high 
est,  and  on  earth  peace,  good  will  toward  men." 

But  battles  are  not  the  only  violations  of  the  law  of  the 
Sabbath.  Marchings,  drills,  all  kinds  of  work,  preparations 
for  battle,  or  burying  the  dead,  and  all  the  bustle,  din,  and 
dissipation  of  a  camp  life,  go  on  comparatively  unchecked. 
In  one  word,  there  is  no  Sabbath  to  the  warrior*  He  must 
work,  or  march,  or  fight  on  the  day  of  rest  just  as  much  as 
on  any  other  day,  if  his  commander  and  circumstances  re 
quire  it.  Many  of  the  greatest  battles  have  been  fought 
on  that  day,  though  historians  have  not  cared  to  state  the 
fact.  Waterloo  and  Plattsburg  occur  to  mind  now  among 
others.  In  a  very  few  instances,  generals  have  refused 
battle  on  the  Sabbath,  but  the  cases  are  rare.  When  men 
commit  themselves  to  this  murderous  business,  they  gen- 
21 


242  THE   VICES    OF    THE    CAMP. 

erally  shut  out  God,  and  the  thought  of  his  laws,  and  their 
accountableness  to  him,  from  their  mind,  and  know  no  re 
ligion,  no  Sabbath,  no  mercy.  The  motto  is,  kill,  kill ; 
plunder,  plunder;  burn,  burn.  Suppose  two  hostile  ships 
meet  on  the  sea  on  Sunday,  what  do  the  chaplains  pray  for  ? 
Is  it  for  love  to  God  and  love  to  man  ?  No  !  but  for  death 
to  destroy  as  many  as  possible  of  the  other  party ;  for  the 
fire,  and  powder,  and  bomb-shells,  and  sabres,  that  they  do 
as  much  execution  as  possible  in  marring  the  image  of  God, 
and  hurrying  mortals  before  their  time  to  the  bar  of  an 
eternal  Judge.  No  single  extensive  cause  has  worked  more 
efficiently  to  abolish  the  Sabbath,  and  ''bring  it  into  dese 
cration  than  war.  All  history  unites  in  casting  this  sin  at 
its  door,  and  God  will  hold  war-makers  to  account  as  so  far 
Sabbath-breakers. 

"We  need  not  waste  many  words  on  the  point  that  the 
Tices  of  intemperance,  profaneness,  and  licentiousness  have 
a  rank  growth  in  war.  The  single  key  of  explanation  is, 
that  the  whole  animal  nature  is  called  into  action.  The 
passions  and  appetites  are  supplied  with  unusual  means  of 
excitement.  The  moral  restraints  of  home  and  surrounding 
society  are  taken  off.  The  refuse  of  society  congregate  in 
the  camp,  and  he  must  be  a  moral  hero  who  is  not  soon 
laughed  out  of  his  virtuous  scruples  at  any  vice.  The  army 
has  in  it  many  good  men,  as  the  world  goes,  but  their  in 
fluence  is  comparatively  overpowered  by  the  daring  spirits 
of  wickedness. 

Something  has  been  done  during  the  last  twenty  years 
to  stay  the  ravages  of  intemperance,  but  this  wrar  engenders 
habits  of  excess,  and  tends  to  reopen  the  flood-gates  of  deso 
lation.  For  the  recruiting  and  enlisting  rendezvous  has  not 
unfrequently  been  a  grog-shop.  Rum  has  been  the  pre 
siding  genius  of  the  mess-room  and  the  camp.  Rum  has 
been  the  spirit  of  battle.  Sutlers  and  retailers  have  throng 
ed  the  encampments,  and,  in  spite  of  the  strictest  commands 


THE    VICES    OF    THE    CAMP.  243 

of  the  officers,  they  have  found  way  to  appropriate  the  last 
cent  of  the  poor  soldier  for  a  glass  of  rum.  The  disbanded 
soldiers  will  scatter  anew  through  the  length  and  breadth  of 
the  land  the  prolific  seeds  of  intemperance. 

The  violent  passions  and  the  reckless  feelings  enraged  by 
war  naturally  find  their  vent  in  the  most  horrible  profane- 
ness.  This  vice  is  as  congenial  to  fleets  and  armies,  as  birds 
to  the  air,  or  fishes  to  the  sea.  It  is  spoken  of  in  history  as 
a  wonderful  triumph  that  Cromwell  was  able  to  banish  it 
from  his  Puritan  troops.  But  most  generals  have  taken  no 
pains,  and  had  no  desire  to  have  the  third  commandment 
observed  by  their  men  ;  indeed,  as  an  almost  universal  rule, 
they  have  been  themselves  grossly  addicted  to  this  practice, 
which  is  neither  "  brave,  polite,  nor  wise."  From  the  camp, 
from  the  man-of-war,  more  curses  than  blessings,  more  oaths 
than  prayers  go  up  before  high  heaven.  If  you  wish  to 
initiate  a  young  man  in  a  short  time  into  this  soul-destroying 
habit,  you  could  not  do  better  than  to  send  him  to  the  battle 
field,  where  human  nature  is  wrought  up  to  the  highest 
pitch  of  maddened,  defiant,  ferocious,  blood-thirsty  passion 
(and  must  be  so  in  order  to  do  the  awful  work  which  is  to 
be  done  there),  and  pours  out  volleys  of  profaneness  against 
heaven  while  discharging  volleys  of  death  at  heaven's  chil 
dren.  He  who  wishes  to  see  the  doom  of  a  profane  and 
God-insulting  people  averted  from  his  country,  will  hold  up 
both  hands  to  vote  against  war. 

Licentiousness  is  another  vice  which  is  diffused  by  war. 
The  habits  of  the  camp  in  this  particular  are  too  well  known 
to  need  description.  Indeed,  multitudes  flock  to  the  stand 
ard  of  Avar  because  they  know  that  they  shall  thus  find 
means  to  gratify  their  passions.  A  chaste  army  would  be 
as  novel  a  thing  in  the  world  as  a  sober  one.  The  camp  is 
the  resort  of  hordes  of  abandoned  females. 

When  a  besieged  city  is  taken,  it  is  sometimes  the  premium 
on  the  bravery  of  the  soldiers  to  deliver  it  up  to  lust  and 
plunder. 


244  THE    VICES    OF    THE    CAMP. 

Such  is  the  licentiousness  of  war.     The  friend  of  purity 
will  be  the  friend  of  peace. 

Indeed,  when  we  consider  the  morals  of  war,  —  and  the 
late  war,  as  we  have  demonstrated  in  the  preceding  pages, 
has  been  not  an  exception,  but  the  fulfilment  of  the  general 
rule,  —  we  would  "  wreak"  our  thoughts  on  some  such  words 
as  these,  0  war,  what  shall  we  say  of  thee,  thou  dark 
spirit,  thou  fearful  minister  of  wrath,  thou  flaming  angel  of 
swift  destruction?  When  thou  art  let  loose,  there  is  a 
shudder  in  heaven,  and  the  angels  veil  their  faces  in  horror. 
The  sound  of  thy  trumpet  strikes  terror  to  the  mother's 
heart,  and  makes  the  sister  turn  pale  with  fear  and  fore 
boding.  Wives  shrink  from  the  sound  of  thy  coming,  and 
children  flee  from  the  thunder  and  havoc  of  thy  train  as 
from  the  whirlwind.  Is  there  purity?  Thou  dishonorest 
it.  Is  there  temperance?  Thou  debauchest  it.  Is  there 
mercy  ?  Thou  turnest  it  to  stone.  Is  there  love  ?  Thou 
curdlest  the  milk  of  human  kindness  to  hatred.  Is  there 
prosperity  ?  Thou  cuttest  oft'  its  resources,  thou  multiplies! 
taxes.  Is  there  home  ?  Thou  layest  it  waste  with  fire  and 
sword.  Is  there  religion  ?  Thou  repealest  every  law  of 
the  decalogue,  every  precept  of  Christ.  Is  there  patriot 
ism  ?  Thou  puttest  in  place  of  the  true  a  vile  substitute, 
current  neither  among  gods  nor  men.  Is  there  honor  ? 
Thou  cheatest  the  world  with  a  base  compound,  that  bears 
the  same  relation  to  true  honor  that  pewter  coin  does  to 
pure  silver.  Is  there  freedom  ?  Thou  draggest  her  a  bound 
captive  at  thy  chariot  wheels.  Is  there  commerce  ?  Thou 
chasest  her  from  the  seas.  Is  there  agriculture?  Thou 
tramplest  her  harvests  under  the  hoofs  of  thy  coursers,  and 
riotest  in  her  plenty.  Is  there  art,  practical  or  ideal  ?  Thou 
burnest  her  workshops,  thou  plunderest  her  galleries.  Is 
there  any  good  thing  on  earth,  which  heaven  has  given,  or 
which  man  has  made  ?  Thou  art  the  curse  and  destruction 
of  alL  Where  thou  movest,  a  garden  is  before  thee,  and  a 


THE    WAR-SPIRIT    AND    THE    GOSPEL    OP    CHRIST.       245 

desert  behind  tliee.  Thou  art  hell  let  loose  upon  the  world ; 
and  when  we  see  thy  banner  in  the  sky,  all  the  good  angels 
of  heaven  seem  to  have  taken  flight,  and  left  us  to  ourselves 
and  to  our  own  worst  passions.  Thine  attendant  spirits  are 
pain,  and  woe,  and  despair,  and  sickness,  and  licentiousness, 
and  intemperance,  and  profaneness,  and  Sabbath-breaking^ 
and  murder,  and  robbery,  and  cruelty.  Thy  victories  are 
the  defeats  of  humanity.  Thy  conquests  are  the  losses  of 
liberty.  Thy  rejoicings  are  the  wailings  of  the  poor  and 
suffering.  Thy  glories  are  the  shame  of  immortals,  and  the 
trophies  of  tigers  and  hyenas.  Thy  laurels  are  red  with 
blood,  and  thy  hosannas  are  the  shrieks  of  the  wounded,  the 
yells  of  the  dying,  the  sobs  of  widows,  the  cries  of  orphans, 
and  the  lamentations  of  nations. 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

THE    WAR-SPIRIT    AND    THE    GOSPEL    OF    CHRIST. 

"  The  depravity  occasioned  by  war  is  not  confined  to  the  army. 
Every  species  of  vice  gains  ground  in  a  nation  during  war.  And 
when  a  war  is  brought  to  a  close,  seldom  perhaps  does  a  community 
return  to  its  former  standard  of  morals."  —  NOAH  WORCESTER. 

"  What  distinguishes  war  is,  not  that  man  is  slain,  but  that  he  is 
slain,  spoiled,  crushed  by  the  cruelty,  the  injustice,  the  treachery,  the 
murderous  hand  of  man.  The  evil  is  moral  evil.  War  is  the  concen 
tration  of  all  human  crimes.  Here  is  its  distinguishing,  accursed 
brand.  Under  its  standard  gather  violence,  malignity,  rage,  fraud, 
perfidy,  rapacity,  and  lust."  —  CHANNING. 

WE  devote  this  chapter  to  what  we  regard  as  the  chief 
evils  of  the  Mexican  war.  The  moral  and  spiritual  facul- 

21* 


246       THE    WAR-SPIRIT    AND    THE    GOSPEL    OF    CHRIST. 

ties  are  at  the  head  of  the  human  constitution,  and  the  in 
terests  resulting  from  them  and  involving  their  development 
and  welfare,  are  the  leading  interests  of  human  society. 
"Whatever  reverses  this  order,  and  puts  last  what  should  be 
first,  and  first  what  should  be  last,  destroys  the  true  per 
spective  of  human  life.  War,  perhaps  more  than  any  other 
single  cause,  works  this  stupendous  wrong.  It  discredits 
and  dwarfs  the  moral  man.  It  supplies  undue  excitements 
and  gratifications  to  all  the  animal  passions.  It  obscures 
the  true  end  of  our  existence,  and  substitutes,  in  place  of  the 
honor  and  dignity  of  serving  God  and  man,  the  gorgeous 
mockery  of  military  glory. 

Had  the  war  now  in  question  been  instrumental  of  the 
loss  of  not  one  dollar  or  one  life,  and  yet  had  it  laid  waste 
the  great  moral  and  religious  interests  of  the  United  States 
and  Mexico,,  and  left  a  deep  wound  upon  the  cause  of  Christ, 
we  should  assign  it  a  foremost  place  among  the  foes  of  our 
laws,  our  liberties,  and  every  social,  material,  and  political 
interest.  For  every  part  of  our  complicated  life  is  con 
nected  with  every  other  part,  as  joint  with  joint,  and  limb 
with  limb  in  the  body.  If  one  suffer,  all  the  others  suffer 
with  it.  When  the  moral  interests  of  society  are  thrown 
into  disorder,  the  evil  extends  through  every  department  of 
thought  and  action.  We  have  by  an  enumeration  of  separate 
evils  demonstrated  that,  if  every  other  argument  failed,  the 
immoralities  of  this  invasion  stamp  it  with  the  darkest  colors 
of  guilt,  and  cover  it  with  the  deepest  abhorrence  of  the 
feeling  heart  and  the  tender  conscience.  We  have  examined 
its  leger,  and  looked  into  its  hospitals,  and  recited  its  hor 
rors,  but  we  will  now  consider  its  spirit.  Space  will  compel 
us  to  be  brief,  where  a  volume  only  could  do  full  justice  to 
the  subject. 

It  is  sometimes  alleged,  that  those  who  fight  have  no 
enmity,  one  towards  another,  and  that  it  is  not  that  they 
hate  their  enemies,  or  wish  them  evil  ;  but  they  contend  at 


THE   WAR-SPIRIT   AND    THE    GOSPEL    OF    CHRIST.    247 

the  call  of  their  country,  and  are  just  as  good  friends  when 
they  stop  firing  as  any  men  in  the  world.  Witness,  it  is 
said,  the  kind  acts  they  do  each  other,  and  the  relief  they 
give  to  the  wounded  and  dying  foeman.  So  be  it.  Let  all 
possible  palliations  relieve  the  horrid  picture  of  the  field  of 
blood.  It  does  us  good  to  think  that  what  is  best  in  man 
sometimes  appears  even  amid  such  scenes.  But  we  propose 
to  record  some  indications  of  the  war-spirit,  and  to  show 
that  where  there  is  such  a  spirit,  the  spirit  of  revenge,  hard- 
heartedness,  cruelty,  delight  in  the  sufferings  of  others,  or 
cold-blooded  indifference  to  them,  there  cannot  be  the  spirit 
of  him,  who  said,  "  Love  your  enemies."  And  certainly 
we  are  not  allowed  to  repeal  his  laws  of  love,  mutual  good 
will,  intercessory  prayers  for  our  enemies,  and  returning 
them  good  for  evil ;  no,  not  even  for  an  hour,  though  that 
hour  be  the  period  of  battle.  How  then  can  war  and  Chris 
tianity  agree  together?  If  it  be  possible  to  love  our  enemies 
at  the  moment  we  are  pouring  vollies  of  grape  into  their 
dense  ranks,  and  to  pray  for  them  at  the  time  we  are  medi 
tating  a  charge  with  naked  bayonets,  then  we  can  conceive 
of  a  war  conducted  on  Christian  principles  and  sentiments, 
but  not  otherwise.  "  War  must  be,"  as  Robert  Hall  says, 
"  a  temporary  repeal  of  the  principles  of  virtue."  The  truth 
is,  that  men  cannot  be  brought  up  to  the  point  of  fighting 
except  by  the  stress  of  most  powerful  motives,  and  those 
motives  in  general  are  drawn  from  the  animal  passions. 
Generals  have  usually  deprecated  a  strong  religious  influ 
ence  in  the  camp.*  Some  have  gone  so  far  as  to  declare, 
the  worse  man,  the  better  soldier.  There  is  a  species  of 
morality  in  war,  but  it  is  of  a  very  abject  nature.  Far  are 
we  from  denying  that  there  are  many  good  men  engaged  in 

*  The  examining  committee  of  the  Military  Academy  at  West  Point 
state  the  significant  fact  in  their  report,  1849,  that  the  chapter  or  sec 
tion  on  War  in  Wayland's  Moral  Science,  a  text  book  in  the  institution, 
is  not  admitted  in  the  course  of  studies  ! 


248     THE   WAR-SPIRIT  AND    THE    GOSPEL    OF    CHRIST. 

the  army  and  navy,  but  if  there  are  such,  it  is  in  spite  of  the 
spirit  of  war,  not  in  obedience  to  it.  The  better  men,  and 
the  more  comprehensive  Christians  they  become,  the  more 
thoroughly  will  they  abhor  their  calling,  and  say,  with  a 
British  officer  of  high  rank  in  the  army  to  his  associates, 
"  ours  is  a  damnable  profession." 

The  war-spirit  of  the  press  has  given  expression  to  senti 
ments  during  the  conflict  like  the  following.  We  do  not 
give  the  names  of  the  papers  and  reviews,  because  our 
object  is  to  illustrate  a  principle,  not  to  attack  persons.  But 
we  quote  from  highly-respected  and  widely-circulated  jour 
nals. 

These  are  the  words  of  one :  "  Nothing  but  a  complete 
subjugation  of  Mexico  seems  to  answer  the  present  emer 
gency.  Foraging  on  the  enemy,  and  levying  contributions 
were  at  last  agreed  upon.  The  anxiety  in  every  man's- 
countenance  to-day  is  strongly  depicted,  and  the  universal 
cry  is,  war  in  earnest — war ;  not  for  peace,  but  for  conquest 
and  subjugation, — a  real  bona  Jide  war,  which  supports  itself 
and  seizes  on  the  enemy's  treasure.  Unless  we  distress  the 
Mexicans,  carry  destruction  and  loss  of  life  to  every  fireside, 
and  make  them  feel  a  rod  of  iron,  they  will  not  respect  us." 

Another  journal  speaks  thus  ;  "  Under  these  circumstances, 
and  in  view  of  the  perfidious  conduct  of  the  Mexican  Gov 
ernment,  oui'  Government  is  bound  by  every  consideration 
of  honor,  duty  and  justice,  to  chastise  them  most  effectually, 
and  to  beat  them  into  a  disposition  to  ask  for  peace,  and  to 
accept  it  on  such  terms  as  we  may  be  disposed  to  grant 
them. 

"  No  more  offers  of  peace,  —  ao  more  paying  for  supplies, 
— no  more  confidence  in  the  professions  and  promises  of  the 
enemy ;  but  stern,  vigorous,  relentless  war,  until  our  just  de 
mands  are  fully  complied  with.  Such  must  and  will  be  our 
policy  now." 

Another  gives  utterance  to  the  following ;  "  Our  work  of 


THE    WAR-SPIRIT   AND    THE    GOSPEL    OF    CHRIST.    249 

subjugation  and  conquest  must  go  on  rapidly  with  augmented 
forces,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  at  the  expense  of  Mexico 
herself.  From  Mexican  contributions,  levied  and  seized,  if 
need  be,  by  the  strong  hand,  our  armies  must  now  be  sub 
sisted  and  supported  in  the  field.  The  policy  of  forbearance 
and  conciliation,  however  magnanimously  adopted  by  us, 
and  in  however  generous  an  attitude  it  may  have  hitherto 
presented  us  before  the  world,  is  now  exhausted.  It  has  met 
with  no  response,  but  new  rancor  and  contumely  from  our 
vanquished  foe.  Henceforth  we  must  seek  peace,  and  compel 
it,  by  inflicting  upon  our  enemy  all  the  evils  of  war." 

Another  expatiates  thus  ;  "  With  a  nation  like  Mexico, 
with  whom  no  accommodation  can  be  hoped  for,  and  as  sad 
experience  has  shown,  no  faith  in  treaties,  even  when  made, 
can  be  entertained,  there  can  be  no  end  to  the  war  short  of 
her  annihilation  as  a  nation.  The  matter  should  be  taken  in 
hand,  in  the  spirit  of  Bonaparte's  bulletins,  in  commencing 
the  Prussian  war:  "  The  House  of  Brandenburgh  has  ceased 
(o  reign  in  Europe."  His  vigorous  strokes  ceased  not  until 
that  edict  was  apparently  accomplished,  and  a  few  weeks 
sufficed  for  the  purpose.  Of  the  same  nature  should  be  our 
proceedings.  "  The  Spaniards  have  ceased  to  rule  in 
Mexico,"  should  be  the  motto,  and  corps  after  corps  poured 
in  at  all  quarters,  until  it  is  enacted." 

Another  speculates  after  this  wise  ;  "  if  Santa  Anna  still 
holds  out,  then  we  must  take  it  for  granted  that  the  Mexican 
people  want  war  to  the  knife  ;x  and  it  will  be  time  for  our 
government  to  resort  to  the  severest  measures  in  order  to 
make  the  war  tell  upon  the  population.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  our  army  will  then  forage  on  the  enemy,  lay  every 
town  and  hamlet  through  which  it  passes  under  heavy  con 
tribution,  and  instead  of  suffering  the  wealthy  citizens  to 
depart  and  withdraw  to  the  interior,  retain  them  as  hostages 
for  keeping  the  peace." 

Still  another  exhorts  to  a  military  colonization ;   "  Let  our 


250    THE   WAR-SPIRIT   AND    TIIE    GOSPEL    OF   CHRIST. 

armies  begin  immediately  to  radiate  from  the  city  of  Mexico 
'into  all  the  Mexican  States.  And  then,  as  a  finishing  stroke, 
our  Government  should  give  freely  of  the  Mexican  domain 
to  as  many  of  our  citizens  as  would  emigrate.  This  would 
goon  fill  up  the  country  with  armed  Americans,  who  would 
complete  not  only  the  subjugation,  but  the  civilization  of 
Mexico." 

"A  manifest-destiny"  editor  holds  forth  thus  ;  "  The 
glorious  sierras  and  valleys  of  Mexico  are  fated  to  be  linked 
to  the  mountains  and  prairies  of  the  United  States.*  *  * 
Politicians  may  connive,  or  quake  and  tremble  as  they  will ; 
Wilmot  Provisos,  Abolition,  and  Disruption  of  the  Union 
are  lost  in  the  tremendous  shout  of  the  American  people, 
Mexico  must  not, — shall  not  be  abandoned  !  *  *  Shall 
we  resist  Providence,  that  guides  the  course  of  nations  ?  *  * 
A  continent  for  freedom  ;  its  boundary  the  icebergs  on  the 
north,  the  oceans  east  and  west,  and  Central  America,  (until 
we  need  it,)  on  the  south,  and  short  of  that  boundary,  no 
human  power  can  stop  the  irresistible  current  of  the  Anglo 
Saxon  race." 

But  the  following  atrocious  sentences  are  almost  too  bad 
to  copy,  did  they  not  illustrate  a  feeling  but  too  prevalent, 
though  sometimes  expressed  in  more  refined  words. 

"  We  go  for  giving  the  Mexicans  hell,  whether  Christ  be 
our  guide  or  not.  We  go  for  whipping  them  thoroughly, 
any  way ;  and  we  must  do  it,  or  stand  disgraced  in  the  eyes 
of  the  civilized  world.  None  of  your  sentimentalism,  —  none 
of  your  u  weary,  wounded  and  worn"  tales.  If  we  had  lis 
tened  to  them  in  by-gone  times,  the  star-spangled  banner 
would  not,  as  it  now  does,  float  in  proud  triumph  over  every 
sea." 

One  more  ;  "  We  trust  now  that  we  shall  hear  no  more  of 
armistices  or  suspension  of  hostilities,  at  least  from  our  side. 
War,  vigorous,  devastating,  unrelenting  war,  is  the  only 
resource,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  Mexicans  will  be 
made  to  experience  it." 


THE    WAR-SPIRIT   AND    THE    GOSPEL    OF    CHRIST.     251 

A  member  of  Congress  said  in  his  official  seat  ;  "  He 
trusted  it  would  be  a  war  of  conquest ;  he  was  not  one  of 
those  who  would  have  a  mild  war,  who  were  afraid  of  strik 
ing  heavy  blows.  He  would  show  no  mercy  till  the  war 
was  ended.  If  he  would  have  his  own  way,  one  blow  should 
follow  another  without  mercy." 

Says  a  Governor  of  a  State,'-  in  my  judgment,  the  motto, 
to  '  conquer  a  peace,'  is  now  made  indispensable — there  is 
no  alternative.  Then  let  the  nation's  power  be  summoned 
to  a  mighty  effort,  and  let  it  break  upon  that  devoted  country, 
peal  after  peal,  in  one  unceasing  note  of  thunder.  Let  the 
public  right  arm  be  made  bare,  and  the  sword  remain  un 
sheathed  until  peace  is  extorted." 

Let  these  suffice  to  exhibit  the  war-mania  that  seized 
upon  a  portion  of  the  American  press,  and  politicians. 
Must  not  such  sentiments  demoralize  the  public  mind 
wherever  circulated  ? 

But  we  proceed  to  another  point.  Let  us  see  what  is  the 
war-spirit  of  warriors,  and  how  far  it  accords  with  the  pre 
cepts,  spirit,  and  example  of  our  beloved  Redeemer  in  his 
sojourn  on  earth.  Here,  too,  we  avoid  the  invidiousness  of 
giving  names  for  an  obvious  reason.  We  attack  a  system,  a 
custom,  not  individuals.  Our  aim  is  principles,  not  men. 
"What  are  the  most  prominent  ideas,  which  some  men  attach 
to  such  words  as  grand,  brilliant,  splendid,  beautiful,  glorious, 
etc.,  will  appear  in  these  extracts.  We  copy  from  official 
reports  chiefly.  The  italics  are  ours. 

Says  Lieut. ,  "  Whilst  this  was  being  done,  I  galloped 

to  the  top  of  the  hill  above  Arispa's  mills,  where  a  grand 
sigltt  burst  upon  my  view.  The  whole  column  (of  the  ene 
my)  was  winding  its  way  along  the  foot  of  the  mountain 
and  through  the  ravines,  more  than  half  the  column  being 
in  range  of  my  gun.  I  galloped  back  to  bring  it  up,  placed 
it  in  position  and  fired  rapidly  into  their  crowded  ranks,  pro 
ducing  considerable  confusion,  and  much  execution." 


252    THE    WAR-SPIRIT   AND    THE    GOSPEL    OF    CHRIST. 

This  is  the  description  of  another  at  the  terrible  siege  of 
Vera  Cruz  ;  "  In  a  few  moments  the  steamers,  Spitfire  and 
Vixen,  and  five  gunboats,  the  whole  under  command  of 

Captain of  the  navy,  ran  in  close  to  the  lime-kiln,  and 

opened  a  beautiful  fire  with  large  Paixhan  guns  upon 
the  town  and  castle.  Nothing  could  have  been  done  more 
handsomely" 

"  Soon    after    our   batteries    opened,    Captain with 

Major ,  stepped   out  to    a   rather  exposed    position  to 

witness  the  effect  of  our  shells.  "  Major,"  remarked  Captain 
V.,  with  enthusiasm,  "  as  you  pass  the  mortars,  please  tell 
the  officers  that  the  shell  are  doing  their  duty  accurately" 

Another  officer  writes  as  follows  ;  "  The  storming  of 
Cerro  Gordo  was  a  magnificent  spectacle,  as  well  as  one  of 
the  most  brilliant,  if  not  the  most  brilliant  feat  ever  accom 
plished  by  American  arms.  Wliai  a  glorious  feeling  of  ela 
tion  took  possession  of  my  soul  at  that  moment  !  I  cannot 
describe  it.  Of  the  wounded,  dead,  and  dying,  we  will  not 
speak.  I  have  seen  Death  robed  in  all  his  ghastly  terrors,  and 
feel  that  I  am  becoming  indifferent  to  the  sufferings  of  my 
fellows  ;  my  profession  demands  it." 

Of  an  American  Lieutenant,  aged  72,  a  correspondent  of 
the  New  York  Post  says,  "  he  had  left  a  home  of  afflu 
ence  and  ease,  with  the  expressed  wish  to  die  in  the  service 
of  his  country,  and,  if  need  be,  on  the  field  of  battle.  '  They 
cannot  cheat  me  out  of  many  more  years,'  said  he.  When 
ordered  with  a  battalion,  like  a  forlorn  hope,  to  the  trying 
contest  in  the  mountains,  he  exclaimed  with  a  look  of  joy,  as 
he  drew  his  sword :  '  Now,  boys,  this  looks  like  doing  some 
thing.'" 

"  I  remained  with  him,"  says  the  surgeon  attendant  on  the 

dying  Maj. "  all  night.     He  had  but  little  pain,  and  at 

intervals  had  some  sleep.  During  the  night  he  gave  me 
many  incidents  of  the  battle,  and  spoke  with  much  pride  of 
the  execution  of  his  shot.  He  had  but  one  thing  to  regret, 


THE  WAR-SPIRIT  AND  THE    GOSPEL    OF  CHRIST.      253 

and  that  was  the  small  number  of  men  at  his  command." 
His  only  regret  that  he  could  not  kill  more  Mexicans  !  "  The 

condition  of  the  brave  and  esteemed  Capt. "  says  an 

eye-witness,  "  is  melancholy  indeed.  The  whole  of  his  lower 
jaw,  with  a  part  of  his  tongue  and  palate,  is  shot  away  by  a 
grape-shot.  He,  however,  survives,  though  entirely  incapable 
of  speed*.  He  communicates  his  thoughts  by  writing  on  a 
slate,  and  receives  the  necessary  nutriment  for  the  support 
of  life  with  much  difficulty.  He  does  not  desire  to  live,  but 
converses  with  cheerfulness  and  exultation  upon  the  success  of 
our  arms,  and  concluded  an  answer  to  some  queries  con 
cerning  the  battle  of  the  9th,  by  writing,  '  We  gave  the  Mexi 
cans  hell! ' ' 

"  When  Lieut,  ,  during  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista, 

was  sent  by  Gen.  Taylor,"  says  the  New  Orleans  Bulletin, 
"with  a  flag  to  a  detached  body  of  1000  to  1500  Mexicans, 

that  were  being  cut  to  pieces  by  our  fire,  Col. was  on 

the  eve  of  charging  them  with  his  dragoons ;  but  as  Lieut. 
—  was  passing  with  his  white  flag  displayed,  —  —  rode 
out  and  crossed  his  path  to  inquire  the  object  of  his  mission. 
'I  am  going  to  tell  those  fellows  to  surrender,  in  order  to 
save  their  lives.'  — '  Wait  till  I  have  charged  them.'  — '  Im 
possible  ;  the  old  man  has  sent  me,  and  I  must  go.'  — '  But, 

my  good  fellow,'  said entreatingly,  'for  God's  sake  just 

rein  up  for  five  minutes,  and  give  us  a  chance  at  them.'  — 
'  Would  do  any  thing  to  oblige  you,  Colonel ;  but  I  have  the 
old  man's  orders,  and  there  is  no  help  for  it.'  And  he  gave 
rein  to  his  horse,  while  the  Colonel  returned  to  the  head  of 
his  regiment  in  the  worst  of  all  possible  humors  against  the 
things  called  flags  of  truce." 

The  diabolical  passion  of  fighting  for  the  love  of  fighting 
is  illustrated  by  this  report  of  an  American  General,  in  the 
bombardment  of  a  Mexican  town,  in  which  219  were  killed, 
and  300  wounded. 

"As  we  approached,  several  shots  were  fired  at  us,  and, 
22 


254      THE  WAR-SPIRIT  AND  THE    GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

deeming  it  unsafe  to  risk  a  street  fight  in  an  unknown  town 
at  night,  I  ordered  the  artillery  to  be  posted  on  a  hill  near 
the  town  and  overlooking  it,  and  open  its  fire.  —  Now  ensued 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  sights  conceivable.  Every  gun  was 
served  with  the  utmost  rapidity;  and  the  crash  of  the  walls 
and  the  roofs  of  the  houses  when  struck  by  our  shot  and 
shell,  was  mingled  with  the  roar  of  artillery.  The  bright 
light  of  the  moon  enabled  us  to  direct  our  shots  to  the  most 
thickly  populated  parts  of  the  town.'' 

At  another  action,  in  his  report  says  another  officer,  now 
promoted  to  a  generalship,  "  I  cannot  speak  too  highly  of 
Capt.  K.  and  his  management  of  his  batteries.  His  shells 
and  shot  fell  beautifully  upon  houses  and  churches  where  the 
enemy  were  in  great  numbers.  Whenever  his  shot  took 
effect,  the  firing  soon  ceased." 

Such  is  the  spirit  of  war  and  warriors,*  and  such,  from 
the  necessity  of  the  case,  it  ever  must  be.  How  totally  in 
consistent  with  the  spirit  of  the  New-  Testament !  Is  it  not 
a  hidden  art,  even  in  this  inventive  age,  to  wage  war  upon 
Christian  principles  and  sentiments  ?  Killing  men,  women, 
and  children  can  hardly  be  done  on  the  basis  of  loving  our 
neighbors,  or  forgiving  our  enemies.  The  single  question  is, 
whether  Christ  be  our  supreme  Master  or  not.  When  that 
is  settled,  it  will  be  comparatively  easy  to  dispose  of  the  ques 
tion  of  war. 

*  The  many  controversies  and  quarrels  among  the  authors  and  advo 
cates  of  this  war  and  the  officers  of  the  army  and  navy  strikingly  illus 
trate  the  combustible  nature  of  the  materials  on  which  the  war-system 
is  built.  Perhaps  we  ask  too  much  of  men,  who  cannot  keep  the  peace 
among  their  own  countrymen,  that  they  should  keep  the  peace  with 
the  rest  of  mankind.  Witness  the  quasi  wars  of  Scott  vs.  Trist,  Pillow 
vs.  Scott,  Scott  vs.  Marcy,  Kearney  vs.  Fremont,  Fremont  vs.  Mason, 
Benton  vs.  Kearney,  to  say  nothing  of  other  controversies  and  duels. 


THE  WAR-SPIRIT  AND  THE    GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST.      255 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 

THE  SAME  SUBJECT  CONTINUED. 

"  War  is  in  itself  a  mighty  evil,  an  incongruity  in  a  scheme  of  social 
harmony,  a  canker  at  the  heart  of  improvement,  a  living  lie  in  a  Chris 
tian  land,  a  curse  at  all  times."  —  LONDON  TIMES. 

IT  has  already  been  shown  by  a  detailed  examination  of 
separate  items,  that  the  late  war  has  been  totally  inconsistent 
with  the  commands  and  spirit  of  the  Gospel.  But  we  treat 
now  of  its  general  spirit.  It  has  been  an  appeal  to  mighty 
and  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  success  of  a  battle  is  any 
proof  of  the  justice  of  the  cause  of  the  victors.  Napoleon 
once  remarked,  that  he  had  always  taken  notice  that  Provi 
dence  favored  the  heavy  battalions!  Victory  perches  on  the 
banner  of  might,  not  always  on  that  of  right. 

We  have  seen  that  even  the  usual  laws  of  war,  and  laws 
of  nations,  have  been  rudely  broken  by  the  barbarities  per 
petrated  on  both  sides;  how  much  more  then  that  perfect 
law  of  love,  revealed  by  Jesus  Christ !  If  the  doctrines  of 
Grotius  and  Vattel  have  been  set  at  nought,  how  much  more 
have  those  of  Paul  and  John? 

The  inconsistency  of  our  invasion  of  Mexico  with  the 
Christian  faith  has  been  brought  into  a  stronger  contrast, 
from  the  fact,  that  at  the  very  moment  we  were  loading 
down  a  vessel  of  war  to  the  very  edge  with  bread-stuffs  for 
the  famishing  Irish,  and  despatching  them  on  this  mission  of 
mercy,  we  were  sending  bomb-ships,  laden  with  the  most 
destructive  implements  of  war,  to  lay  waste  the  cities  of 
Mexico,  and  bury  men,  women,  and  children  in  the  ruins  of 


256      THE  WAR-SPIRIT  AND  THE    GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

their  dwellings  and  churches.  It  is  a  serious  inquiry  for 
every  Christian,  whether,  while  we  have  thus  been  aiming 
fatal  blows  at  the  physical  life  of  a  sister  republic,  we  may 
not  have  placed  ourselves  in  the  way  of  receiving  the  fruits 
of  spiritual  death  in  ourselves. 

We  can  conceive  of  no  line  of  antitheses  more  directly 
pitched,  one  against  the  other,  than  the  qualities  called  into 
the  most  lusty  life  and  growth  by  such  a  war,  and  those 
recommended  and  enforced  in  the  instructions  of  our  blessed 
Lord,  and  shining  with  a  holy  and  beautiful  light  in  his  char 
acter,  "  as  the  brightness  of  the  firmament."  It  is  ambition 
fronting  meekness  ;  pride,  lowliness  of  mind ;  revenge,  for 
giveness  ;  retaliation,  forbearance;  cruelty,  mercy;  wrong, 
justice;  hate,  love.  "They,"  said  Erasmus,  "who  defend 
war,  must  defend  the  dispositions  which  lead  to  it ;  and  these 
dispositions  are  absolutely  forbidden  by  the  Gospel." 

Mexico  wras  weak,  we  were  strong.  Common  magnanim 
ity,  much  more  that  holy  law  that  bids  us  "  support  the  weak, 
and  be  patient  towards  all  men,"  condemns  the  onslaught  of 
war.  In  private  life,  our  blood  boils  with  indignation  to  -see 
the  feeble  beset  and  maltreated  by  the  robust.  Does  the 
magnitude  of  scale  alter  the  nature  of  the  rule  ?  Speaking 
of  those  most  immediately  responsible  for  the  war,  Mr.  Gal- 
latin  says,  in  his  widely-circulated  pamphlet,  "there  is  not 
one  of  them,  who  would  not  spurn  with  indignation  the  most 
remote  hint  that,  on  similar  pretences  to  those  alleged  for 
dismembering  Mexico,  he  might  be  capable  of  attempting  to 
appropriate  to  himself  his  neighbor's  farm."  But  can  the 
law  of  Christian  honesty  be  so  palpably  violated  in  the 
smaller  instance  supposed,  and  does  it  receive  no  wound  in 
the  larger  one  ? 

It  has  been  complained  of  by  the  advocates  of  this  war 
that  the  pulpit  has  generally  been  arrayed  against  it.  The 
fact  is  probably  true.  The  great  mass  of  the  clergy  of  every 
denomination  have  uttered  their  condemnation  of  the  war 


THE  WAR-SPIRIT  AND  THE   GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST.      257 

They  have  preached  and  prayed  against  it.  Indeed  they 
have  felt  that  no  prayer  or  song  could  be  made  out  of  the 
subject,  except  in  distinct  and  decided  opposition  to  carrying 
our  arms  beyond  the  boundaries  of  our  enormous  territory 
into  those  of  a  weak  and  distracted  neighbor.  The  eccle 
siastical  bodies  of  this  country,  with  scarcely  an  exception 
in  the  free  States,  have  come  out  in  votes  and  resolutions  of 
the  most  stringent  condemnation  of  the  war.*  These  facts 
may  show  how  utterly  they  have  deemed  it  to  be  opposed  to 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  may  by  some  be  regarded 
as  an  intimation,  though  by  no  means  a  proof,  that  such  was 
the  reality. 

But,  in  marked  contrast  with  the  above,  we  record  as 
exemplifications  of  the  fatal,  corrupting  influence  of  the  war- 
miasma,  the  cases  of  some  even  of  the  ministers  of  Christ, 
who  entered  the  army,  and  who  preached  and  prayed  in 
favor  of  the  war.  A  private  letter  from  a  Lieutenant  in 
the  service,  says ;  "  We  have  here  among  the  volunteers  a 
preacher  who  is  a  captain,  his  officers  and  non-commissioned 
officers  are  deacons  of  his  church ;  and  the  privates  mem 
bers.  He  is  called  the  fighting  Preacher.  He  and  his  com 
pany  are  from ." 

We  have  already  mentioned  that  a  preacher  was  killed  in 
the  ranks  in  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista. 

Sermons,  which  are  now  before  us,  were  preached  both 
on  the  Rio  Grande,  and  at  the  city  of  Mexico  before  the 
troops,  justifying  the  war,  talking  largely  of  the  "  Anglo 
Saxon  destiny,"  comparing  the  progress  of  the  American 
arms  with  the  entrance  of  the  children  of  Israel  into  the  land 
of  Canaan,  and  giving  the  sanctions  and  benedictions  of  Chris 
tianity  to  the  awful  wrongs  and  barbarities  of  one  of  the 
most  cruel,  sanguinary,  and  demoralizing  wars  on  record. 

*  Advocate  of  Peace,  Nov.  and  Dec.  1847,  pp.  134  —  137.  Feb.  1848, 
pp.  166,  167.  Oct.  1848,  pp.  274  —  276. 

22* 


258      THE  WAR-SPIRIT  AND  THE    GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

But  we  need  not  say  that  this  surely  is  no  period  of  the 
world  for  true  Christians  to  justify  war,  and  especially  wars 
of  aggrandizement,  retaliation,  and  slavery.  When  could 
the  Mexican  invasion  assume  a  more  hideous  aspect  in  the 
eyes  of  good  men,  than  at  a  time  when  the  missionaries  of 
the  cross  are  penetrating  to  the  remotest  parts  of  the  earth 
on  their  glorious  errand  of  evangelizing  the  heathen  ;  *  and 
when  even  Mohammedan  powers,  the  Sultan  of  Turkey,  the 
Shah  of  Persia,  the  Imaum  of  Muscat,  and  the  Arabian 
chiefs  have  either  abolished  slavery,  or  very  much  re 
stricted  it ;  and  when  there  seems  to  be  a  universal  move 
ment  in  the  world  towards  a  happier  age  of  Freedom,  Peace, 
and  Philanthropy.  Thus  the  spirit  of  the  age  rebukes  and 
condemns  our  war.  For  into  that  spirit  has  entered,  we 
believe,  some  faint  portion  of  "  the  mind  that  was  in  Christ." 
Surely  this  of  all  periods,  since  the  world  began,  is  not  the 
day  to  exact  "  the  pound  of  flesh  next  the  heart "  with  a 
cruel  greediness,  nor  to  resent  injuries  with  a  hasty 
revenge,  nor  to  fight  for  glory,  territory,  or  oppression.  Let 
us  hope  that  our  countrymen  will  yet  come  to  their  senses, 
and  frown  upon  a  spirit  and  a  career  so  utterly  at  variance 
with  the  holy  religion  we  profess,  and  check  any  symptoms 
of  a  renewal  of  wars  of  invasion,  conquest,  and  slavery. 

*  A  Chinese  emperor  once  said :  "  Wherever  Christians  go  they 
whiten  the  soil  with  human  bones  ;  and  I  will  not  have  Christianity  in 
my  empire." 

A  Turk  at  Jerusalem  once  said  to  Wolff,  the  missionary,  "  Why  do 
you  come  to  us  ? "  The  missionary  replied,  "  to  bring  you  peace." 
"Peace  !  "  replied  the  Turk,  leading  him  to  a  window,  and  pointing  to 
Mount  Calvary,  "  there  !  upon  the  very  spot  where  your  Lord  poured 
out  his  blood,  the  Mohammedan  is  obliged  to  interfere  to  prevent  Chris 
tians  from  shedding  the  blood  of  each  other!  " — Calumet  of  Peace. 


LESSONS    OP    THE   WAR   WITH    MEXICO.  259 


CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

THE    LESSONS    OP   THE    WAR   WITH   MEXICO. 

"  Our  sole  aim  being  to  promote  the  cause  of  permanent  peace  by 
turning  this  war  into  effectual  warnings  against  resorts  to  the  sword 
hereafter."  —  PROPOSALS  von  A  REVIEW  OF  THE  WAR  BY  THE 
AMERICAN  PEACE  SOCIETY. 

A  BRIEF  survey  of  some  of  the  more  prominent  lessons, 
taught  us  by  the  events  of  the  last  two  years,  is  all  that  can 
be  given  now,  though  the  future  will  no  doubt  teach  us  far 
more  upon  this  subject  than  the  past. 

The  friends  of  peace  had  fondly  cherished  the  hope  that 
pure  republics,  the  governments  of  the  many  as  contradis 
tinguished  from  monarchies  and  aristocracies,  the  govern 
ments  of  the  one,  or  the  few,  would  be  pacific.  War  has 
been  charged  upon  rulers,  though  it  has  been  confessed  it 

"  Is  a  game,  which,  were  their  subjects  wise, 
Kings  would  not  play  at." 

But  we  are  disappointed.  We  see  that  republics  can  wage 
as  fierce,  brutal,  and  unjust  wars,  as  feudal  and  despotic 
powers.*  The  mania  of  conquest  may  riot  in  the  veins  of  a 
democracy  as  furiously  as  in  those  of  a  kingdom  or  empire. 

*  "Witness  republican  France,  waging  a  cruel  war  against  republican 
Rome  to  restore  the  Pope !  The  example  of  our  wickedness  will  find 
in  future  history  but  too  many  imitators.  Such  cases  need  not  in  the 
least  shake  our  faith  in  republicanism ;  but  they  should  convince  us  of 
the  necessity,  if  we  would  have  a  true  republicanism,  of  compounding 
with  it  large  admixtures  of  sound  education,  pure  religion,  and  the 
spirit  of  universal  brotherhood. 


260  LESSONS    OF   THE   WAR    WITH    MEXICO. 

In  this  respect  we  witness  the  non-fulfilment  of  many  wise 
predictions  and  cherished  hopes.  The  very  independence 
and  self-reliance  taught  by  free  institutions  make  the  repub 
lican  the  most  formidable  soldier  on  earth,  when  he  cuts 
loose  from  the  scruples  of  a  religious  education.  The  state- 
rivalry  and  panting  for  distinction  by  the  members  of  differ 
ent  sections  of  the  Union  have  also  blown  up  the  war-passion 
to  a  hotter  flame,  and  made  the  battle-field  an  arena  for  the 
most  intense  competition. 

The  Mexican  war  has  accordingly  taught  us  not  to  trust 
to  political  institutions  alone,  however  free  and  admirable, 
for  the  maintenance  of  pacific  relations  among  mankind.  We 
must  strike  a  higher  key.  "We  must  appeal  to  deeper  motives. 
Men  may  know  their  rights  in  a  republic,  and  still  be  igno 
rant  of  their  duties.  They  may  know  their  duties,  and  not 
discharge  them.  They  may  have  a  morbid  jealousy  of 
tyranny  over  themselves,  and  yet  play  the  tyrant  over  others. 
We  would  bring  no  railing  accusation  against  our  own,  our 
native  land.  Heaven  bless  it,  every  acre  and  rood !  But 
because  we  love  it,  and  would  ever  rejoice  in  its  unsullied 
honor  and  Christian  fame,  we  deeply,  deploringly  remonstrate 
against  the  spirit  of  political  propagandism.  If  we  have  so  far 
lost  sight  of  the  nature  of  free  institutions,  and  the  true  mis 
sion  of  the  United  States,  as  to  propose  to  offer,  Mohammed- 
like,  the  alternative  of  freedom  in  one  hand,  and  the  sword 
in  the  other,  to  the  other  nations  of  the  earth,  the  sooner  our 
days  are  numbered  and  finished,  the  happier  for  the  peace 
of  the  world.  We  say  thus  much,  not  to  give  "  aid  or  com 
fort"  to  any  enemy  of  liberty  and  the  institutions  in  which 
liberty  is  organized,  but  to  "  point  the  moral "  of  the  late 
war.  It  is  not  that  we  love  our  country  less,  but  mankind 
more.  It  is  not  that  we  would  be  any  the  less  devoted 
patriots,  but  that  we  would  sanctify  and  dignify  that  charac 
ter  by  being  the  more  devoted  philanthropists  and  disciples 
of  Christ. 


LESSONS    OF   THE    "WAR    WITH   MEXICO.  261 

And,  in  general,  we  have  been  taught  by  this  war  how 
broken  a  reed  we  lean  upon,  when  we  propose  to  accomplish 
the  magnificent  result  of  a  general,  permanent  peace  by  any 
temporal  expedients,  any  carnal  weapons,  any  industrial,  social, 
political,  commercial,  or  selfish  arrangements.  Satan  cannot 
cast  out  Satan,  nor  can  even  selfishness  itself  exorcise  the 
demoniac  spirit  of  war.  Men  will  hardly  give  up  the  grati 
fication  of  their  lusts,  though  they  could  turn  a  penny  by  it. 
Yea,  we  see  that  they  will,  under  the  instigation  of  the  strong 
and  animal  passions,  fling  every  consideration  of  interest, 
honest  reputation,  consistency,  and  safety  to  the  winds,  and 
embark  in  a  crusade  against  which  their  pockets,  their  love 
of  life,  and  every  apparent  interest  cry  out.  But  wars  and 
fightings  come  from  a  different  part  of  the  human  constitution 
than  the  calculating  faculties.  A  whole  boiling  cauldron  of 
ambition,  excitement,  pleasure,  revenge,  sympathetic  ardor, 
is  in  the  breast  of  the  volunteer.  lie  cannot  be  controlled 
except  by  principles  and  sentiments  mightier  than  those  that 
have  usurped  the  dominion  over  his  reason  and  conscience. 
But  "where  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty;" 
liberty  from  those  unsanctified  lusts  and  passions  of  the 
human  heart,  out  of  which  all  the  terrible  deeds  of  Avar 
come,  as  streams  of  burning  lava  from  the  volcano.  The 
motives  that  are  to  emancipate  even  the  freest  and  most 
refined  nations  from  enacting  the  appalling  tragedy  of  the 
battle-field,  must  descend  from  a  higher  plane  than  the  leger, 
the  statute-book,  and  the  laws  and  interests  of  conventional 
life.  God  must  thunder  and  lighten  out  of  heaven.  Jesus 
must  spread  out  his  arms  in  the  agony  of  the  cross,  as  if  to 
draw  all  men  to  their  spiritual  unity  and  head.  Man's  rela 
tion  to  man,  as  a  brother,  owning  equal  rights,  and  bound  by 
equal  duties,  must  be  revealed  in  its  full  solemnity  and  ten 
derness.  Then,  and  not  till  then,  can  we  hope  to  see  this 
foul  spirit  cast  out,  from  the  hearts  even  of  good  men,  much 
less  out  of  the  sensual  mind.  We  welcome  with  delight 


262  LESSONS    OF   THE    WAR   WITH   MEXICO. 

everj  new  tie  uniting  distant  lands  in  the  intercourse  of  com 
merce,  science,  and  a  material  civilization.  All  hail  to  the 
press,  the  steamboat,  the  railroad,  and  the  telegraph,  as 
connecting  men  together  more  and  more,  not  by  links  of 
iron  onl y,  but  by  cords  of  love.  But  the  causes  of  war  are  too 
inveterate  to  be  cured  by  any  thing  short  of  the  miraculous 
touch  of  the  Son  of  God.  He  is  the  Prince  of  Peace.  He, 
and  he  only,  can  say  to  a  warring  world,  as  he  once  said  to 
the  raging  deep,  "  Peace,  be  still,"  and  the  winds  and  waves 
obeyed  him.  Thanks  be  accorded  to  all  who  are  laboring 
for  human  improvement  in  every  direction,  and  by  every 
instrument,  for  they  are  co-laborers  with  the  advocates  of 
the  uninterrupted  brotherhood  of  nations. 

But  chiefly  as  Christianity  pervades  the  mass  of  mankind 
in  its  life-giving  spirit  and  efficacy,  will  men  awake  to  the 
unutterable  wickedness  of  war,  and  learn  its  horrid  arts  no 
more.  Civilization  itself  is  no  adequate  remedy;  but  civili 
zation,  after  the  Christian  type,  and  uplifted  and  empowered 
with  Christian  ideas,  will  outgrow  war.  It  has  outgrown 
many  barbarous  notions  and  customs,  —  the  ordeal,  torture, 
persecution,  superstition,  —  of  earlier  ages ;  and  it  is  only  a 
question  of  time  and  faithful  effort,  when  this  great  embodi 
ment  of  barbarism  shall  drop  off  from  the  expanding  limbs 
of  Freedom,  on  which  it  has  so  long  hung  as  a  hideous  and 
monstrous  excrescence. 

Another  lesson  from  these  hostilities  is,  that  what  are  called 
the  improvements  of  ivarfare  are  poor  pretexts  to  justify  its 
continuance.  Commend  us  not  to  war  as  a  thing  which  is 
very  susceptible  of  improvement.  The  devil  cannot  be  dis 
guised,  though  he  be  clothed  in  a  suit  of  broadcloth,  and 
have  a  musket  and  canteen,  instead  of  a  bow  and  arrows. 
He  is  still  the  devil.  He  was  a  murderer  from  the  begin 
ning,  and  he  will  be  a  murderer  to  the  end.  He  will  make 
children  orphans,  and  wives  widows,  and  parents  childless. 
He  may  use  different  tools,  the  bomb  instead  of  the  batter- 


LESSONS    OP   THE    WAR   WITH    MEXICO.  263 

ing-ram,  the  rifle  instead  of  the  cross-bow,  and  the  cannon 
instead  of  the  scythe?!  chariot ;  but  the  devil  is  the  devil 
yet,  and  war  is  war.  It  cannot  be  smoothed,  civilized,  or 
evangelized.  Much  assurance  indeed  was  given,  that  the 
late  contest  should  be  conducted  on  humane  and  just  princi 
ples,  so  far  as  such  a  hellish  work  could  be  thus  carried  on. 
But  the  fulfilment  of  these  fine  promises  must  be  looked  for 
among  the  legitimate  and  illegitimate  barbarities  perpetrated. 
If  large  masses  of  men  are  trained  to  kill  in  the  most  dex 
terous  and  scientific  modes  at  the  behest  of  their  superiors,  it 
cannot  be  thought  very  strange  if  they  sometimes  do  a  little 
murdering  on  their  own  private  account.  If  they  are  led 
forth  to  conquest  with  their  passions  stimulated  to  the  utmost 
with  the  visions  of  national  glory  and  aggrandizement,  it 
were  natural  and  pardonable,  perhaps,  that  they  should  pilfer 
a  trifle  on  their  own  hook,  in  view  of  the  splendid  example 
held  up  perpetually  to  view.  Such  has  been  the  fact.  Plun 
dering,  massacres,  cruelties,  the  killing  of  the  wounded  on 
the  field  of  battle,  and  even  in  some  cases  burning  alive  at 
the  stake,  have  been  recorded  on  the  highest  official  author 
ity,  as  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  Mexican  war.  Two  free 
Christian  nations,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  going  to  war 
with  one  another,  and  in  that  war  witnessing  and  perpetrat 
ing  barbarities  that  would  disgrace  New  Zealand !  Away 
with  the  idle  pretence,  that  war  can  ever  be  any  thing  else 
than  barbarous,  sanguinary,  cruel,  and  full  of  all  manner  of 
evil !  Let  not  those  who  uphold  it  as  the  true  method  of 
settling  international  disputes,  encourage  the  idea  that  it  ever 
can  be,  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  any  thing  else  but 
violence,  fraud,  murder,  and  a  temporary  repeal  of  every 
commandment  of  the  King  of  kings.  If  we  are  to  have  war, 
let  us  call  it  war,  nor  seek  to  baptize  it  in  any  other  Chris 
tian  title  or  surname.  "  Woe  unto  them  that  call  evil  good, 
and  good  evil ;  that  put  darkness  for  light,  and  light  for  dark 
ness  ;  that  put  bitter  for  sweet,  and  sweet  for  bitter !" 


264  LESSONS    OF    THE    WAR    WITH   MEXICO. 

We  see  another  proof  in  this  contest  of  the  essential  injus 
tice  of  all  war.  As  a  mode  of  redressing  injuries,  it  is  per 
fectly  absurd,  for  it  creates  a  thousand  injuries  and  wrongs 
where  it  redresses  one.  It  runs  posterity  into  debt  without 
their  consent,  and  mortgages  the  industry  and  capital  of 
future  ages.  Instead  of  punishing  the  guilty,  it  often  visits 
the  innocent  with  its  heaviest  calamities.  The  battle-field 
is  not  entitled  in  any  sense  to  be  regarded  as  a  solemn  tri 
bunal  of  justice.  The  very  notion  of  a  battle  is,  that  men 
temporarily  lay  aside  all  that  they  had  gained  by  thou 
sands  of  years  of  civilizing  and  Christian  processes,  re 
solve  themselves  into  savages,  and  appeal  from  right,  from 
reason,  from  the  exercise  of  all  those  nobler  faculties  of  our 
constitution,  that  had  been  predominant  in  peace,  to  the 
coarse,  rude,  and  vindictive  passions.  The  greatest  of  the 
poets  drew  it  all  to  the  life ;  — 

"  In  peace,  there's  nothing  so  becomes  a  man 
As  modest  stillness  and  humility ; 
But  when  the  blast  of  war  blows  in  our  ears, 
Then  imitate  the  action  of  the  tiger ; 
Stiffen  the  sinews,  summon  up  the  blood. 
Disguise  fair  nature  with  hard-favored  rage  ; 
Then  lend  the  eye  a  terrible  aspect, ; 
Let  it  pry  through  the  portage  of  the  head, 
Like  the  brass  cannon  ;  let  the  brow  o'erwhelm  it, 
As  fearfully  as  doth  a  galled  rock 
O'erhang  and  jutty  his  confounded  base, 
Swilled  with  the  wild  and  wasteful  ocean  ; 
Now  set  the  teeth,  and  stretch  the  nostrils  wide  j 
Hold  hard  the  breath,  and  bend  up  every  spirit 
To  his  full  height." 

Our  actions  will,  of  course,  partake  of  the  nature  of  those 
passions  or  feelings  which  are  uppermost  at  the  time  we 
act.  If  then  the  deeds  of  war  are  performed  under  the 
powerful  stress  of  the  animal  nature,  they  must  of  necessity 
be  of  like  color  and  character,  "  earthly,  sensual,  devilish." 


LESSONS    OF    THE    WAR    WITH    MEXICO.  265 

And  by  what  alembic  a  long  career,  a  campaign,  or  several 
campaigns  of  such  actions  are  to  be  sublimated  into  justice, 
and  wrong  to  be  righted,  and  evils  to  be  cured,  and  injuries 
to  be  placated,  is  more  than  we  have  been  yet  able  to 
discover.  Such  temporary  returns  to  the  brutal  age  of  the 
world  inflict  deep  wounds  upon  a  Christian  state  of  society; 
for  they  are  a  virtual  renouncement  for  the  time  being  of  the 
reign  of  truth  and  justice,  and  they  cast  discredit  and  dis 
couragement  upon  all  the  moral  and  religious  instrumen 
talities  by  which  society  is  drawn  up  from  the  slough  of  sen 
sual  customs  and  habits  into  the  light  and  life  of  civilization. 

The  Mexican  war  was,  as  we  have  seen,  a  signal  example 
of  this  resorting  to  might  instead  of  right,  and  employing  the 
strong  arm  of  force  to  compel  the  surrender  of  a  part  of 
another  country.  It  was  a  compound  of  the  crime  of  the 
highway-man,  who  puts  his  pistol  at  your  head,  and  cries, 
"  Deliver,  or  die,"  and  the  truckling  of  the  pedlar  who  trades 
in  small  wares,  and  chuckles  over  his  hard-driven  bargain 
after  it  is  made.  Never  was  there  a  finer  opportunity  for 
what  might  be  called  national  magnanimity,  than  for  the 
stronger  power  in  this  case  to  bear  and  forbear  with  the 
weaker  one,  and  aid,  not  thwart  it,  in  carrying  out  the  ex 
periment  of  republican  institutions. 

A  score  of  names,  perhaps,  in  the  whole  range  of  history, 
have  been  accounted,  called  great.  But  who  are  they  ? 
How  poor  are  all  the  results  they  left  on  earth  compared 
with  his  who  repressed  the  ignoble  strife  of  his  followers, 
who  should  be  greatest.  They  were  from  below,  he  was 
from  above.  Some  good  men  have  attained  the  title,  an 
Alfred,  a  Peter,  a  Charlemagne ;  but  most  have  been  great 
in  crime  and  blood  ;  an  Alexander,  a  Pompey,  a  Caesar,  a 
Herod,  a  Louis,  a  Henry,  a  Frederic,  a  Charles,  a  Buona 
parte.  They  were  great  in  many  things  ;  great,  perhaps,  in 
ability,  great  in  resolution  of  will,  great  in  means  of  influ 
ence,  and  striking  in  their  results  ;  but  little  in  the  elements 

23 


26&  LESSONS    OF   THE   WAR   WITH    MEXICO. 

of  a  truly  great  character  ;  little  in  honesty,  in  truth,  in  love, 
mean,  selfish,  crafty,  cruel,  and  implacable.  They  have  been 
willing  to  sacrifice  any  amount  of  human  life  or  happiness, 
to  secure  their  end,  and  be  accounted  the  greatest.  Bat 
how  poor  the  honor,  how  blood-stained  the  glory  !  How 
many  death-pangs  it  has  taken  to  refine  their  thrill  of  plea 
sure,  how  many  tears  to  water  their  garlands  of  victory,  how 
much  human  gore  to  dye  their  purple  robes  of  royalty  ! 
What  curses  have  loaded  their  names  on  earth,  what  awful 
memories  must  haunt  them  in  the  world  of  spirits  ! 

We  want  no  more  such  great  ones.  We  have  had  enough 
of  them.  We  want  the  truly  great,  the  truly  good.  And  if 
we  would  have  such  from  among  our  youth,  we  must  fill 
their  heads  and  hearts  not  with  pagan,  or  Mohammedan,  but 
with  Christian  ideas  and  sentiments.  We  must  baptize  our 
children  not  only  into  the  name  of  Christ,  but  also  into  his 
spirit.  We  must  show  them  how  much  greater  in  reality 
Jesus,  the  well-beloved  of  the  Father,  was  in  washing  his 
disciples'  feet,  than  Xerxes  riding  forth  at  the  head  of  his 
army  to  lay  waste  the  fairest  countries  with  fire  and  sword  ; 
Jesus  dying  in  ignominy  on  the  cross,  than  Caesar  making  his 
triumphal  procession  into  Rome  with  the  spoils  and  captives 
of  vanquished  kingdoms. 

This  strife  has  repeated,  in  fresh  and  distinct  tones,  this 
lesson  of  the  perverted  standard  of  judgment  created  by  war. 
We  see  how  poor  a  thing  is  mere  animal  courage,  and  mar 
tial  fame.  We  see  that  the  most  brilliant  deeds  of  the 
soldier,  (sold-ier,  the  man  who  is  sold),  are  of  such  a  charac 
ter  that,  were  they  done  by  any  other  profession,  the  actors 
would  be  convicted  and  punished  as  the  highest  offenders 
against  the  peace,  and  order,  and  rights  of  men.  What  right 
can  man  claim  thus  to  invent  a  system  of  war-morality,  war- 
honor,  war-reputation,  which  conflicts  at  every  point  with  the 
government  of  the  Most  High  ? 

The  true  nature  of  much  that  passes  current  in  society  as 


LESSONS    OF   THE    WAR   WITH   MEXICO.  267 

heroism  of  the  highest  kind,  when  exhibited  in  war,  is  so 
well  exposed  by  a  modern  writer,  Dr.  Bushnell,  that  we 
need  not  apologize  for  repeating  his  distinction  between 
"  bravery  "  and  "  courage."  * 

"  No,  the  true  hero  is  the  great,  wise  man  of  duty,  —  he 
whose  soul  is  armed  by  truth  and  supported  by  the  smile  of 
God,  —  he  who  meets  life's  perils  with  a  cautious  but  tran 
quil  spirit,  gathers  strength  by  facing  its  storms,  and  dies,  if 
he  is  called  to  die,  as  a  Christian  victor,  at  the  post  of  duty. 
And  if  we  must  have  heroes,  and  wars  wherein  to  make 
them,  there  is  no  so  brilliant  war  as  a  war  with  wrong,  no 
hero  so  fit  to  be  sung  as  he  who  has  gained  the  bloodless 
victory  of  truth  and  mercy. 

"  But  if  bravery  be  not  the  same  as  courage,  still  it  is  a 
very  imposing  and  plausible  counterfeit.  The  man  himself 
is  told,  after  the  occasion  is  past,  how  heroically  he  bore  him 
self,  and  when  once  his  nerves  have  become  tranquillized,  he 
begins  even  to  believe  it.  And  since  we  cannot  stay  con 
tent  in  the  dull,  uninspired  world  of  economy  and  work,  we 
are  as  ready  to  see  a  hero  as  he  to  be  one.  Nay,  wre  must 
have  our  heroes,  as  I  just  said,  and  we  are  ready  to  harness 
ourselves,  by  the  million,  to  any  man  who  will  let  us  fight 
him  out  the  name.  Thus  we  find  out  occasions  for  war,  — 
wrongs  to  be  redressed,  revenges  to  be  taken,  such  as  we 
may  feign  inspiration  and  play  the  great  heart  under.  We 
collect  armies,  and  dress  up  leaders  in  gold  and  high  colors, 
meaning,  by  the  brave  look,  to  inspire  some  notion  of  a  hero 
beforehand.  Then  we  set  the  men  in  phalanxes  and  squad 
rons,  where  the  personality  itself  is  taken  away,  and  a  vast 
impersonal  person,  called  an  army,  a  magnanimous  and 
brave  monster,  is  all  that  remains.  The  masses  of  fierce 
color,  the  glitter  of  steel,  the  dancing  plumes,  the  waving 
flags,  the  deep  throb  of  the  music  lifting  every  foot,  —  under 

*  Phi  Beta  Oration  at  Cambridge,  1848,  pp.  21  ,.22. 


268  LESSONS    OF   THE    WAR   WITH   MEXICO. 

these  the  living  acres  of  men,  possessed  by  the  one  thought 
of  playing  brave  to-day,  are  rolled  on  to  battle.  Thunder, 
fire,  dust,  blood,  groans,  —  what  of  these  ?  —  nobody  thinks 
of  these,  for  nobody  dares  to  think  till  the  day  is  over,  and 
then  the  world  rejoices  to  behold  a  new  batch  of  heroes ! 
"  And  this  is  the  Devil's  play  that  we  call  war." 
And,  finally,  we  have  been  startled  by  this  wild  crusade 
into  a  new  conviction  of  the  vast  latent  war-spirit  of  our 
country  and  of  the  world,  and  the  necessity  of  more  untiring 
and  devoted  labors,  and  more  comprehensive  plans  to  carry 
the  peace  enterprize  to  a  triumphant  conclusion.  We  be 
lieve  in  the  true  mission  or  destiny  of  our  nation  to  illustrate 
the  idea  of  Freedom  and  a  Christian  State.  But  if  we  dis 
own  the  glorious  career,  God  is  not  so  poor  that  he  has  not 
other  nations  and  races  which  he  can  employ  for  purposes 
equally  grand  and  beneficent.  We  may  hug  the  delusive 
phantom  that  we  are  a  species  of  Israel  among  other  people, 
but  let  us  not  forget  that  Israel  did  not  escape  the  fiery 
furnace  of  punishment  and  retribution  for  all  their  trans 
gressions  and  backslidings. 

And,  as  we  reflect  upon  the  work  to  be  done  to  guide  this 
giant  republic  on  a  safe  and  peaceful  career,  we  ask  who  is 
sufficient  for  these  things  ?  Oh,  for  parents  of  peace,  who 
will  make  their  well-ordered  families  so  many  living  peace 
societies !  Oh,  for  Christian  teachers,  who  will  early  train 
the  tender  minds  under  their  care  to  govern  those  passions 
whence  wars  and  fightings  come  !  Oh,  for  Christian  histo 
rians,  who  will  write  the  dark  register  of  crime  and  cruelty 
with  a  melting  heart,  and  a  righteous,  wholesome  indig 
nation,  and  warn  while  they  instruct !  Oh,  for  statesmen  of 
peace,  who  will  feel  that  <they  arc  amenable  to  God  more 
than  man,  to  Christ  than  to  country,  and  that  every  war  is  a 
stab  at  the  very  existence  of  civil  society,  a  reversal  of  civil 
ization,  a  suicide  of  the  republic  !  Oh,  for  Gospel  ministers, 
who  will  proclaim  the  whole  counsel  of  God  on  this  subject, 


SUBSTITUTES    FOR   WAR.  269 

and  from  the  commanding  station  of  the  pulpit,  with  the 
meek  wisdom  of  their  master,  win  all  men  to  "  study  the 
things  that  make  for  peace!" 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 

SUBSTITUTES    FOR    WAR. 

"  In  thirty-one  days  the  natural  results  of  this  system  of  peace  and 
fraternity  have  been  more  valuable  to  the  cause  of  France  and  of 
liberty  and  of  Poland  herself,  than  ten  battles  with  torrents  of  blood." 

LAMARTINE. 
"  For  what  can  war  but  endless  war  still  breed  ?" 

MILTON. 

WE  have  already  argued  at  length  on  the  beginning  and 
ending  of  the  war,  as  instructive  and  striking  lessons  of 
peace.  In  continuation  and  expansion  of  the  same  idea,  in 
a  little  different  direction,  we  would  take  up  the  means  of 
preventing  war  by  negotiation,  arbitration,  congress  of  na 
tions,  or  some  other  method.  Surely  such  an  infernal  system 
ought  not  to  go  on  without  the  wisest  counsels,  and  the  most 
strenuous  efforts  of  all  Christians,  patriots,  and  philanthro 
pists  to  arrest  it.  "  Shall  the  sword  devour  forever  ?"  We 
believe  not.  We  have  full  faith,  that  there  is  latent  abhor 
rence  enough  against  war  in  Christendom  to  sheathe  the 
sword,  were  it  given  utterance,  and  positive,  practical  appli 
cation.  There  is  an  amount  of  sleeping  indignation  and 
opposition,  so  to  say,  in  the  minds  of  the  Christian  men  and 
women  in  America,  were  it  called  forth,  organized,  and  put 
into  execution,  to  sweep  the  accursed  institution  among  our 
selves  into  eternal  oblivion.  But  hitherto  there  have  not 


270  SUBSTITUTES    FOR   WAR. 

been  sufficient  decision  and  action  on  the  subject.  We  have 
tampered  and  played  and  compromised  with  the  evil.  We 
have  perhaps  unconsciously  and  unintentionally,  but  actually, 
nursed  the  war-passion  in  the  tender  minds  of  our  children 
and  youth.  Our  great  institutions  of  army,  navy,  militia, 
arsenals,  naval  and  military  schools,  have  done  much  to 
"educate  the  heart  of  the  people  for  war."  We  have  gloried 
in  the  past  wars  of  our  young  republic,  and  promoted  their 
heroes  to  the  most  brilliant  posts  of  honor  and  emolument 
at  home  and  abroad. 

The  subject  of  Peace  and  War,  therefore,  comes  as 
surely  under  the  law  of  cause  and  effect,  as  that  of  any 
other  in  the  material  or  moral  world.  The  causes  and 
means  of  Peace,  if  properly  and  faithfully  employed,  would 
eventually  result  in  peace,  just  as  the  causes  and  means 
of  War  have  resulted  in  war.  With  a  peace-education,  a 
peace-literature,  a  true,  and  not  a  counterfeit  "  peace-estab 
lishment,"  a  peace-administration  of  the  general  government, 
and  shall  we  not  say  in  view  of  some  facts  which  have  been 
stated  in  this  essay,  a  peace-religion,  the  relations  of  the 
United  States  with  every  other  government  would  be  con 
solidated  on  a  pacific  basis,  which  nothing  would  be  able  to 
shake.  And  to  the  furtherance  and  ultimate  carrying  out  of 
these  peaceful  influences  on  the  part  of  society  at  large,  two  or 
three  additional  ideas  should  be  incorporated  into  the  per 
manent  law  of  nations. 

1.  Mediation  and  Arbitration.  These  instruments  of  avert 
ing  war,  settling  international  questions,  or  putting  an  end  to 
hostilities,  have  been  often  employed  of  late,  and  oftener  as 
the  relations  of  nations  to  one  another  have  been  seen  more 
in  a  Christian  light,  and  as  falling,  like  the  relations  of  in 
dividuals  one  to  another,  under  all  the  solemn  and  binding 
sanctions  of  the  law  of  God. 

Thus,  in  the  very  matter  of  these  difficulties  between 
Mexico  and  Texas  and  the  United  States,  we  have  no  less 


SUBSTITUTES    FOR   WAR.  271 

than  three  instances  of  the  friendly  offices  of  other  govern 
ments,  and  in  two  of  them  the  result  was  partially  or  wholly 
successful,  and  promoting  a  good  understanding. 

In  adjusting  the  claims  for  Mexican  spoliations,  1840 — 
1842,  a  Prussian  umpire  was  employed  to  decide  between 
the  Mexican  and  American  commissioners. 

In  1845,  through  the  intervention  of  Great  Britain  and 
France,  Mexico  consented  to  acknowledge  the  independence 
of  Texas,  "  provided  she  would  stipulate  not  to  annex  her 
self  or  become  subject  to  any  country  whatever."  That 
provision  was  not  however  fulfilled. 

In  1846,  Great  Britain  offered  her  mediation  both  to 
Mexico  and  the  United  States,  to  effect  a  treaty  of  peace, 
but  by  both  powers  it  was  either  declined,  or  neglected. 

But  were  there  a  proper  spirit  prevailing  among  the  high 
officers  of  Christian  governments,  and  were  they  sustained 
by  the  good  sense  and  forbearance  of  the  people,  it  would 
be  held  to  be  no  more  derogatory  for  two  nations  to  accept 
the  intervention  of  a  third  power  to  effect  a  peace,  or  to 
prevent  war,  or  to  submit  their  disputes  to  a  friendly  arbi 
tration,  than  it  is  for  individuals  to  do  the  same  or  simi 
lar  things  in  their  private  transactions.  Unfortunately 
howcvjer,  the  sensitivness  of  national  honor  is  such,  that  it 
often  refuses,  after  the  duelist's  example,  to  be  satisfied  with 
any  thing  short  of  human  blood.  Were  the  great  mass  of  the 
population  in  any  civilized  country  brought  to  see  and  un 
derstand  the  miseries,  losses,  and  sins  of  war,  they  would 
sustain  their  rulers  by  the  omnipotence  of  public  opinion  in 
any  honest  measures  that  would  avert  such  an  inundation  of 
evils.  How  much  more  truly  honorable  in  the  sight  of  God 
and  the  nations  would  it  have  been,  to  submit  our  questions 
with  Mexico  to  a  board  of  impartial  referees,  or  to  accept 
the  mediatorial  offices  of  friendly  powers  to  stay  the  rivers 
of  blood  !  He  who  in  private  life  is  bent  upon  going  to  law 
with  his  neighbor,  and  rejects  the  proffers  of  conciliation, 


272  SUBSTITUTES    FOR    WAR. 

is  thought  to  be  governed  by  sinister  motives  of  revenge, 
apprehension  of  the  badness  of  his  cause,  or  of  the  results 
of  an  unbiassed  examination.  May  not  a  like  unfavorable 
construction  be  put  upon  the  conduct  of  the  nation  that  scorns 
pacific  measures,  and  strides  on  to  its  work  of  blood,  deaf  to  the 
entreaties,  and  amicable  remonstrances  of  other  powers  ? 

The  best  method  to  insure  arbitration  in  all  cases  of  diffi 
culty,  is  to  insert  in  every  treaty  an  article  binding  both 
parties  to  adopt  that  mode  of  adjusting  boundaries,  claims, 
and  all  questions.  Mr.  Roberts,  first  President  of  the  Republic 
of  Liberia,  stated  at  the  Peace  Congress  in  Brussels,  Sept. 
1848,  that  "  he  had  caused  to  be  inserted  in  treaties,  made 
with  many  of  the  African  tribes,  a  clause,  binding  the  parties 
to  refer  their  difficulties  to  arbitration,  and  had  thus  suc 
ceeded  in  preventing  war  from  breaking  out  betwe«n  those 
savage  tribes  for  ten  years.  If  the  measure  were  practica^ 
ble  among  such  populations,  whose  ruling  passion  was  war, 
what  might  it  not  do  for  peace,  if  adopted  by  civilized  and 
Christian  nations  ?  '* 

There  are  many  reasons  why  nations  should  settle  their 
disputes  by  legal  forms,  rather  than  by  the  uncertain  chances 
of  the  battle-field.  It  is  done  by  individuals  and  in  corpora 
tions,  and  in  our  Union  by  the  several  States,  and  were  it 
done  by  nations  the  change  from  barbarism  to  law  would  be 
completed.  Then  the  chances  of  justice  being  fulfilled  would 
be  multiplied.  The  innocent  would  not  be  involved  with 
the  guilty  in  the  horrid  sufferings  of  war.  Vast  sums  of 
money  would  be  saved.  The  unspeakable  disgrace  and 
wickedness  of  nominally  Christian  nations  engaged  in  cut 
ting  one  another's  throats  on  some  punctilio  of  claim  or 
ceremony,  would  be  averted.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  every 
future  treaty  contracted  by  the  United  States  and  the  Euro 
pean  nations  will  contain  a  specific  provision  for  arbitration, 
like  the  following  one  in  the  Treaty  with  Mexico* 

*  Advocate  of  Peace,  vol.  viii.,  p.  297. 


SUBSTITUTES    FOR    WAR.  273 

ARTICLE    XXI. 

"  If  unhappily  any  disagreement  should  hereafter  arise  be 
tween  the  governments  of  the  two  republics,  whether  with 
respect  to  the  interpretation  of  any  stipulation  in  this  treaty, 
or  with  respect  to  any  other  particular  concerning  the  politi 
cal  or  commercial  relations  of  the  two  nations,  the  said 
governments  in  the  name  of  those  nations,  do  promise  to 
each  other  that  they  will  endeavor,  in  the  most  sincere  and 
earnest  manner,  to  settle  the  difference  so  arising,  and  to  pre 
serve  the  state  of  peace  and  friendship  in  which  the  two 
countries  are  now  placing  themselves  ;  using,  for  this  end, 
mutual  representations,  and  pacific  negotiations.  And  if, 
by  these  means,  they  should  not  be  enabled  to  come  to  an 
agreement,  a  resort  shall  not,  on  this  account,  be  had  to  re 
prisals,  aggression,  or  hostility  of  any  kind,  by  the  one 
republic  against  the  other,  until  the  government  of  that 
which  deems  itself  aggrieved  shall  have  maturely  considered, 
in  the  spirit  of  peace  and  good  neighborship,  whether  it 
would  not  be  better  that  such  difference  should  be  settled  by 
the  arbitration  of  commissioners  appointed  on  each  side,  or 
by  that  of  a  friendly  nation.  And  should  such  course  be 
proposed  by  either  party,  it  shall  be  acceded  to  by  the  other, 
unless  deemed  by  it  altogether  incompatible  with  the  nature 
of  the  difference,  or  the  circumstances  of  the  case." 

The  next  Article  in  the  Treaty  is  an  attempt,  as  has  been 
said,  to  bind  the  parties,  if  they  should  again  fight,  ("  which 
is  not  to  be  expected,  and  which  God  forbid!")  to  make  Avar 
on  CJiristian  principles  ! 

And  let  it  not  be  here  said,  that  nations  must  be  left  to 
manage  their  own  concerns  for  themselves,  and  that  it  is  the 
business  of  no  third  party  to  say  how  they  shall  settle  their 
quarrels.  On  the  contrary,  it  does  very  much  concern  every 
nation  that  every  other  nation  be  at  peace.  It  is  the  busi- 


274  SUBSTITUTES    FOR   TFAE, 

ness,  very  properly  and   necessarily  the   business   of  every 
nation,  that   its   neighbors  be    not  embroiled  in  sanguinary 
conflicts  on  shore,  spoliations  upon  one  another's  commerce 
on  the    sea,  nor  that  they  should  in  any  way  interrupt  the 
great  channels  of  human   intercourse,  trade,  and   improve 
ment.     There  may  at  particular  periods  be  partial  benefits, 
arising  from  war  among  their  neighbors,  to  neutral  powers  ; 
but  in  general  it  is  the  deranger  of  commerce,  the  embroilcr 
of  international  connections  beyond  the  parties  directly  in 
volved,  the  signal  to  confusion  and  every  evil  work  through 
the  world.      The  war-trumpet   blows   discord  into  the   ear 
of  listening  nations.    A  slight  contest  between  inconsiderable 
powers  has  sometimes  in  history  brought  on  that  awful  era 
in  human  events,  called  "  a  general  war."     Much  responsi 
bility  rests   upon   those   who   first   break   the  peace  in  the 
family  of  nations.    And  from  such  considerations  it  is  plainly 
the   interest   and  duty  of  neutral  nations  to  use  their  good 
offices  to  restore  peace  between  the  belligerents.     On  every 
ground,  too,  of  humanity  and   Christianity,  it  is   imperative 
that  democracies  of  all  governments  should  cordially  wel 
come   the   amiable    intervention    of   others    to    heal   their 
discords  ;  for  war  is  the  enemy  of  the  people,  the  enemy  of 
liberty,  the  certain  subverter  of  most  of  the   benefits   pro 
posed  by  free  institutions.     History  is  full  of  warnings  upon 
this  subject,  and  if  we   are   not   deaf  as   adders,  we   shall 
hearken  to  the  solemn  voice  that  issues  from  the  grave  of 
departed  republics. 

2.  Congress  of  Nations.  But  mediation  or  arbitration,  val 
uable  as  it  may  be  and  has  been,  is  not  sufficiently  systematic 
and  general,  to  contribute  very  effectually  to  extinguish  the 
firebrands  of  war.  We  have  just  had  mournful  evidence  that 
some  more  efficacious  instrument  is  demanded  for  the  pacifi 
cation  even  of  Christian  republics  and  near  neighbors. 

The  most  satisfactory  plan  which  has  yet  been  suggested 
is  that  of  a  Congress  of  Nations  ;  or  a  Congress  and  a 


SUBSTITUTES    FOR   WAI?.  275 

Court  of    Nations,  one    as   the  preliminary  and   legislative 
body,  and  the  other  as  the  judicial  and  executive  one  ;  the 
one  to  enact  rules,  and  the  other  to  judge  cases,  and  carry  its 
decisions    into    effect.      Many   objections   have   been  raised 
against  this,  and  every  other  project  of  perpetual  pacification 
among  the  nations,  but  they  are  in  general  founded  either 
on  a  misconception  of  the  plan  proposed,  or  on  the  old  no 
tion,  that  what  has  been,  must  be.     If  an  august  body  should 
meet,  of  the  wisest  and  best  men,  venerable  for  age  and  ser 
vices,  experienced  in  all  matters  of  a  legal,  judicial,  political 
and  moral  character,  elevated  far  above  the  aims  of  a  selfish 
ambition,  consulting  with  a  large  vision  not  for  any  narrow 
sectional  interest  of  one  or  a  few,  but  for  the  welfare  of  the 
world,  it  would  be  a  spectacle  in  itself  to  command  the  uni 
versal  admiration,  homage  and  obedience  of  mankind.    This 
object   would  be   as    sublime   as  it  would  be  beneficent,  to 
pacificate  a  warring  world,  to  staunch  the  bleeding  wounds 
of  kingdoms,  to  actualize  the  prophetic  and  millennial  age, 
and   establish  in  steadfast  loyalty  the  undisputed  reign  of 
the  Prince  of  Peace. 

The  details  of  such  a  world-Congress,  or  Court,  one  or 
both,  would  of  course  require  more  discussion  than  can  be 
given  to  them  in  this  review.     They  will  be  found,  however, 
at  length  in  the  Prize  Essays  on  a  Congress  of  nations,  pub 
lished  by  the  American  Peace  Society,  and  in  a  compiled 
Essay  on  the  same  subject  by  the  late  distinguished  philan 
thropist,  William  Ladd.     We  only  insert  the  subject  here 
in  connection  with  another  frightful  chapter  in  our  history, 
that  speaks  in  thunder-tones  of  the  need  of  such  an  institu 
tion,  or  some  one  like  it,  to  avert  these  wholesale  murders. 
When  a  new  idea  is  first  broken  to  the  mind,  there  is  apt  to 
be  some  revulsion  from  it  as  being  novel,  extravagant,  and 
aggressive  upon  our  previous  'views. .    But  the  longer  it  is 
entertained,  if  it  be  true  and  valuable,  the  more  fully  do  we 
become  convinced  that  all  truth  is  harmonious,  safe,  and  pro- 


276  SUBSTITUTES    FOR    WAR. 

fitable ;  and  that  precisely  what  the  nations  are  perishing 
for,  is  lack  of  knowledge  ;  that  what  the  "  whole  creation 
groaneth  and  travaileth"  for,  is  the  faithful  application  of 
the  truths  of  Christ  to  the  wants  of  human  society,  in  all 
public  affairs  as  well  as  in  private  conduct  and  to  the  in 
dividual  heart.  The  word  of  God  is  no  mere  fine  theory, 
but  the  eternal  verity,  deeper  than  the  sea,  higher  than  the 
heavens,  of  these  momentous  interests  of  man  living  with 
man,  and  nation  with  nation  ;  "  neither  is  there  salvation  in 
any  other." 

But  most  thoroughly  are  we  persuaded  that  there  is 
nothing  in  the  plan  in  question  more  wild  or  Quixotic  than 
the  institution  of  civil  society  itself,  especially  than  the 
leagues  and  alliances  recorded  in  history,  and  the  Federal 
Union  of  thirty  independent  States  in  our  own  government. 
What  is  needed  is,  that  the  idea  of  a  great  pacific  tribunal 
to  settle  the  disputes  of  the  world,  should  be  broached, 
familiarized  to  the  people,  sent  abroad  on  the  wings  of  the 
press,  hammered  by  dint  of  heavy  and  oft-repeated  argu 
ments  into  the  mass  of  admitted  and  accredited  truths,  and 
then  the  work  is  ,  done.  We  have  trained  mankind  to  war, 
we  must  now  train  them  to  peace.  When  the  spirit  of 
peace  is  largely  developed  in  the  public  sentiment  of  Europe 
and  America,  this  institution  will  be  born  in  a  day.  The 
tendency  of  these  remarks  is  to  show  that  the  agitation  of 
the  subject  is  what  i:s  now  most  exigent.  By  books  and 
pamphlets,  by  the  living  voice  and  the  inspired  pen,  this 
theme  must  be  brought  home  to  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
men,  and  they  must  be  made  to  feel  that  every  individual, 
be  he  higlr  or  low,  rich  or  poor,  is  vitally  concerned  in  hav 
ing  the  great  quarrels  of  kingdoms  justly  and  amicably 
settled,  as  he  is  that  justice  should  be  done  between  man 
and  man,  and  peace  and  order  prevail  in  his  hamlet  or 
A'illage.  For  in  the  earthquake  shocks  of  war  a  thousand 
homes  are  overturned,  and  the  mark  of  blood  is  left  behind 


PACIFICATION    OF   THE    WORLD.  277 

on  ten  thousand  spheres  of  life  once  usefully  and  happily 
filled  by  fathers,  sons,  husbands,  brothers.  Let  us  hope,  and 
labor,  and  pray,  that  the  day  may  not  be  far  distant  when 
civilized  and  Christian  men  will  sec  the  madness  of  war,  its 
buhl  inconsistency  with  the  theory  of  a  republican  govern 
ment,  its  hostility  to  the  spirit  of  the  present  age,  and  its 
nullification  of  every  law,  and  promise,  and  prayer  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ. 


CHAPTER    XXX. 

PACIFICATION    OF   THE   WORLD. 

"  When  the  drums  shall  throb  no  longer, 

And  the  battle-flags  be  furled 
In  the  Parliament  of  man, 

The  Federation  of  the  world."  —  TENNYSON. 

"  Neither  shall  they  learn  war  any  more."  —  ISAIAH. 

SINCE  war  has  so  many  evils,  and  peace  so  many  bless 
ings,  may  we  not  labor  with  hope  for  the  fulfilment  of  the 
prophet's  vision  ?  Since  the  expenditures  of  military  ex 
peditions,  the  destruction  of  multitudes  of  lives,  the  barbari 
ties,  executions,  illegalities,  personal,  domestic,  and  political 
evils,  the  vices  of  the  camp,  the  creation  of  a  species  of 
martial  literature,  the  introduction  of  false  maxims  of  con 
duct,  and  the  counteraction  of  the  Gospel  by  the  war-spirit, 
chargeable  upon  our  conflict  with  Mexico,  are  virtually  the 
same  in  all  wars,  may  we  not  hope  that  the  good  sense  of 
mankind,  and  their  feelings  of  human  brotherhood,  will 
24 


278  PACIFICATION    OF    THE    WORLD. 

filially  gain  such  a  predominance  as  to  effect  the  pacification 
of  the  whole  world  ?  And,  especially,  is  not  this  expectation 
encouraged  by  the  well  known  fact  that  many  other  evil 
customs  and  habits  have  disappeared  and  are,  disappearing 
before  the  more  Christian  civilization  of  the  present  day  ? 
What  now  is  witchcraft ?  An  obsolete  superstition.  Where 
are  torture,  and  the  appeal  to  fire,  or  water  ?  Laid  away 
among  exploded  ideas.  Where  are  the  Inquisition  and  per 
secution  for  heresy  ?  Gone  beyond  all  power  of  recall. 
Where  are  privateering,  and  piracy,  and  the  slave  trade  ? 
All  entered  in  the  "  Index  Expurgatorius  "  of  international 
law.  Where  are  slavery,  intemperance,  and  war  ?  Grad 
ually  falling  under  the  same  ban,  and  no  longer  acquiesced 
in  as  necessary  evils,  but  recognized  as  mutable  and  capable 
of  eradication  with  the  other  corrupt  usages  specified,  if 
efficient  and  Christian  means  be  applied,  with  faith  and  per 
severance,  for  their  removal.  The  day  is  gone  for  any 
man,  with  the  Bible  in  his  hand,  and  God  and  heaven  above 
him,  to  say  that  war  must  be  eternal.  We  do  not  presume 
to  date  the  year  or  century  of  the  laying  aside  by  the 
nations  of  their  cumbrous  coats  of  mail,  and  the  disarma 
ment  of  their  numerous  troops  and  squadrons,  and  the  estab 
lishment  of  those  modes  of  adjusting  international  difficulties 
detailed  in  the  last  chapter.  But  we  see  already  symptoms 
of  returning  health  in  the  body  politic,  though  joined  with 
some  other  prognostics  less  favorable.  Cases  of  mediation, 
arbitration,  and  peaceable  intervention,  are  multiplying. 
Treaties  are  constructed  with  more  reference  to  perma 
nency.  It  has  become  fashionable  even  for  kings  and  states 
men,  out  of  deference  to  a  certain  rising  public  sentiment  of 
mankind,  to  speak  well  of  peace.  War  has  been  summoned 
to  answer  for  itself  before  the  judgment-seat  of  civilization 
and  of  Christianity,  and  it  is  found  to  make  but  a  poor  jus 
tification.  The  friends  of  peace  are  in  earnest  and  increas 
ing.  The  solitary  protestations  of  a  Penn  or  Worcester 


PACIFICATION    OF    THE    WOULD.  279 

have  multiplied  into  the  deep-toned  remonstrances  of  a  Lon 
don,  a  Brussels,  and  a  Paris  Yvrorld's  Convention  of  Peace. 
The  press  and  the  pulpit  are  enlisted.  The  power  of  asso 
ciation  is  invoked.  "Olive  leaves"  are  flying  far  and  near. 
"While,  therefore,  the  drum-beat  still  heralds  the  morning 
sun  round  the  globe,  we  will  not  so  far  distrust  God,  or 
despair  of  our  race,  as  to  believe  that,  when  daily  triumphs 
are  achieved  over  the  brute  elements  of  nature ;  and  fire,  and 
water,  and  steam,  and  magnetism,  and  electricity  are  bowed 
to  the  service  and  control  of  man,  he  is  never  to  acquire  any 
better  government  over  those  brutal  passions  of  his  own 
nature,  Avhose  outbreaks  are  for  more  disastrous  to  life  and 
happiness  than  the  volcano,  the  earthquake,  or  the  hurricane. 

When  we  consider  how  little  has  been  done  to  prevent 
war,  and  how  much  to  cultivate  its  spirit,  and  to  invest  its 
feats  with  a  factitious  glory ;  how  literature  and  the  fine  arts, 
and  politics,  and,  sad  to  confess,  even  professed  Christians 
have  encouraged,  applauded,  and  diffused  the  passion  for 
arms,  we  wonder  not  at  the  frequency  of  battles,  and  the 
human  blood  that  has  stained  half  the  land  and  sea  of  the 
whole  earth.  Indeed  the  martial  spirit  has  been  so  prevalent, 
mankind  have  drunk  it  so  greedily  as  if  it  were  as  innocent 
as  water,  that  we  are  prone  to  forget  what  a  thorough  educa 
tion  we  give  our  children  for  war,  and  how  little  we  do  for 
the  pacification  of  the  world. 

For  when  we  inquire  how  this  vast  underlying  passion  for 
war  has  been  educated  and  ripened  in  the  heart  of  society,  we 
shall  be  constrained  to  answer:  It  is  by  Che  war-songs  of  child 
hood,  and  the  studies  of  the  classics.  It  is  by  the  wooden 
sword,  and  the  tin  drum  of  boyhood.  It  is  by  the  trainings 
and  the  annual  muster.  It  is  by  the  red  uniform  and  the  white 
plume,  and  the  prancing  steed.  It  is  by  the  cannon's  thun 
der,  and  the  gleam  of  the  bayonet.  It  is  by  ballads  of  Robin 
Hood,  and  histories  of  Napoleon,  and  "  Tales  of  the  Cru 
saders."  It  is  by  the  presentation  of  flags  by  the  hands  of 


280  PACIFICATION    OF    THE    WORLD. 

the  fair,  and  the  huzzas  for  a  victory.  It  is  by  the  example 
of  the  father  and  the  consent  of  the  mother.  It  is  by  the 
fear  of  cowardice,  and  the  laugh  of  the  scorner.  It  is  by 
the  blood  of  youth,  and  the  pride  of  manhood,  and  stories 
of  revolutionary  sires.  It  is  by  standing  armies,  and  majestic 
men-of-war.  It  is  by  the  maxims  of  self  defence,  and  the 
cheapness  of  human  life,  and  the  love  of  excitement.  It  is 
by  novels  of  love,  and  the  "  Pirate's  Own  Book."  It  is  by 
the  jars  of  home,  and  the  squabbles  of  party,  and  the  con 
troversies  of  sects.  It  is  by  the  misconception  of  the  Bible, 
and  ignorance  of  God.  It  is  by  the  bubble  of  glory,  and 
the  emulation  of  schools,  and  the  graspings  of  money -making. 
By  one  and  by  all,  the  heart  of  the  community  is  educated 
for  war,  from  the  cradle  to  the  coffin.  When  we  sow  the 
seed  so  copiously,  we  must  not  complain  that  the  harvest  is 
abundant. 

And  if  we  would  inquire,  how  the  heart  of  the  world  can 
be  calmed,  and  enlarged,  and  inspired  with  the  life-breath 
of  peace ;  we  can  only  say  that  such  a  heart  comes  from  the 
nurture  of  home,  and  the  solemnity  of  the  church,  and  the 
tomb  of  the  loved  and  gone.  It  comes  by  the  closet  of 
prayer,  and  the  communion  of  nature,  and  the  table  of  the 
Lord.  It  comes  by  a  sister's  love  and  a  brother's  example, 
and  the  memory  of  "  the  good  old  place."  It  comes  in  the 
distilling  dew  of  Christian  instruction  and  the  infinite  sanc 
tions  of  death,  judgment,  and  eternity.  It  comes  by  the 
sweetness  of  Fenelon,  and  the  love  of  Scougal ;  by  the  maj 
esty  of  Luther,  and  the  humanity  of  Penn.  It  comes  by 
the  horror  of  blood,  and  the  courage  to  be  a  coward  in  the 
wrong.  It  comes  by  the  testimonies  of  the  wise,  and  the 
heroism  of  the  good.  It  comes  by  the  Beatitudes  of  the 
New  Testament,  and  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  Paul's  master 
piece  of  Charity,  and  John's  epistle  of  Love.  It  comes  by 
him  who  was  born  in  a  manger  and  died  on  a  cross,  the  Son 
of  God,  the  Prince  of  Peace,  the  Saviour  of  sinners. 


CONCLUSION.  281 

By  these  means  the  weaker  spirit  of  war  may  be  made  to 
yield  to  the  mightier  spirit  of  peace.  "  And,"  in  the  words 
of  an  English  divine,*  suggestive  of  some  of  the  foregoing 
remarks,  "  it  must  appear  to  what  most  awful  obligation  and 
duty  we  hold  all  those  from  whom  this  heart  takes  its  nature 
and  shape,  our  king,  our  princes,  our  nobles,  all  who  wear 
the  badge  of  office,  or  honor;  all  priests,  judges,  senators, 
pleaders,  interpreters  of  law,  all  instructors  of  youth,  all 
seminaries  of  education,  all  parents,  all  learned  men,  all  pro 
fessors  of  science  and  art,  all  teachers  of  manners.  Upon 
them  depends  the  fashion  of  the  nation's  heart.  By  them  it 
is  to  be  chastised,  refined,  and  purified.  By  them  is  the  state 
to  lose  the  character  and  title  of  the  beast  of  prey.  By  them 
are  the  iron  scales  to  fall  off,  and  a  skin  of  youth,  beauty, 
freshness,  and  polish,  to  come  upon  it.  By  them  it  is  to  be 
made  so  tame  and  gentle  as  that  a  child  may  lead  it." 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

CONCLUSION. 

"  I  have  been  apt  to  think  there  never  has  been,  nor  ever  will  be,  any 
such  thing  as  a  good  war,  or  a  bad  peace."  —  FRANXLIH. 

"  Then,  at  least  shall  it  be  seen,  that  there  can  be  no  peace  that  is  not 
honorable,  and  there  can  be  no  war  that  is  not  dishonorable"  —  CHARLES 

SUMXER. 

AN  able  writer  of  the  present  day  has  said,  that  "the 
philosophical  study  of  facts  may  be  undertaken  for  three 
different  purposes ;  the  simple  description  of  the  facts  ;  their 

*  Rev.  Dr.  Ramsden. 
24* 


282  CONCLUSION. 

explanation  ;  or  prediction,  meaning  by  prediction,  the  deter 
mination  of  the  conditions  under  which  similar  facts  may  be 
expected  again  to  occur."  The  Mexican  war  is  now  num 
bered  among  the  things  of  the  past.  What  has  been  done, 
is  done ;  and  what  has  been  written,  is  written.  Its  conse 
quences,  however,  will  long  remain,  and  will  mingle  with 
future  events  and  influences  materially  to  affect  our  national 
prospects.  A  treaty  may  stop  the  war,  though  some  symp 
toms  are  unfavorable,  but  it  cannot  stop  the  war-results.  The 
question  then  is,  how  can  this  great  evil  be  turned  to  the 
best  account.  After  narrating  and  explaining  its  events,  so 
as  to  get  a  clear  idea  of  its  origin,  causes,  losses  of  life  and 
treasure,  and  its  social,  political,  and  moral  evils,  the  next 
step  is  to  state  the  conditions  on  which  we  may  predicate  the 
recurrence  of  similar  mischiefs ;  or  draw  such  lessons  of 
warning  and  encouragement,  as  will  tend  to  prevent  them. 
This  end  the  American  Peace  Society  propose  to  accomplish 
by  publishing  a  Review  of  the  War,  and  pointing  out  clearly 
and  impressively  to  the  citizens  of  our  land,  what  measures 
should  be  taken  to  save  us  from  plunging  again  into  like 
calamities.  Thus  reviewed,  and  exposed,  this  darkest  of  all 
the  passages  in  our  country's  history,  and  most  ominous  of 
evil  to  come,  in  the  judgment  of  wise  statesmen,  and  sage 
moralists,  may  be  converted  into  an  unexpected  blessing. 
The  wars,  consequent  upon  the  French  Revolution,  aroused 
the  friends  of  Peace  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean  to  more 
positive  and  combined  action  in  behalf  of  this  cause,  and 
induced  the  formation  of  associations  to  work  for  the  grand 
object  of  a  universal  and  perpetual  pacification  of  the  world. 
Much  has  thus  been  effected  to  enlighten  both  rulers  and 
people,  and  to  impress  upon  both  their  solemn  duties.  Much 
has  been  done  by  the  devoted  and  untiring  laborers  in  this 
department  of  Christian  philanthropy,  over  which  angels 
must  rejoice,  and  the  King  of  kings  extend  his  benediction. 
But  the  great  work  has  but  just  been  commenced.  We 


CONCLUSION.  283 

cannot  suppose  that  so  "  splendid  "  a  sin  as  war  can  at  once 
be  stripped  of  its  false  and  fascinating  garb,  that  the  deeply- 
rooted  and  long-revered  customs  of  nations  can  be  torn  up 
in  a  day,  martial  passions  and  habits  be  checked,  and  a  pub 
lic  opinion,  and  a  public  conscience  and  heart  too  be  formed 
ou  the  subject,  of  sufficient  potency  to  sheathe  the  sword  for 
ever.  But  the  slowness  of  progress,  the  discouragements  of 
efforts,  the  violent  opposition  with  which  a  good  cause  and 
its  advocates  meet,  do  not  release  us  from  our  duty  to  that 
cause,  or  furnish  in  reality  a  solitary  reason  why  we  should  fold 
our  anus  in  despair.  The  cause  of  Peace  only  suffers  a  like 
fate  from  opposition,  misconstruction  and  misrepresentation,  as 
the  other  glorious  causes  of  philanthropy,  and  as  that  parent 
religion  of  which  these  causes  are  the  legitimate  and  hopeful 
offspring.  We  may  be  sure  that  nothing  is  lost,  that  is  done 
in  a  true  spirit  and  a  high  aim  for  the  furtherance  of  human 
good,  and  the  divine  glory.  God  forbid  that  we  should  ever 
fear  that  "  His  ear  is  heavy  that  it  cannot  hear,  or  His  hand 
shortened,  that  it  cannot  save!" 

In  this  faith,  the  Mexican  war  is  a  new  weapon,  put  into 
the  hands  of  peace,  wherewith  to  win  her  bloodless  victories. 
It  teaches  us,  were  lessons  wanting,  the  folly  of  all  war,  its 
sin  against  God,  and  its  subversion  of  His  great  plan.  It 
teaches  us  by  its  gory  fields  of  carnage,  and  the  screaming 
hells  of  its  hospitals,  that  a  retributive  God  sits  in  the  heav 
ens,  and  that  those  "  who  take  the  sword,  shall  perish  by  the 
sword."  If  rightly  interpreted  and  faithfully  laid  to  heart, 
it  is  capable  of  showing  us  the  emptiness  of  military  glory, 
the  contentious  and  unchristian  spirit  which  it  cherishes 
among  the  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  same  side,  the  torrent 
of  vices  that  is  let  loose  in  the  patli  of  armies,  and  the  pro 
fuse  Avaste  that  is  made  of  all  that  men  hold  dear,  or  labor 
most  industriously  to  attain.  It  is  a  lesson  at  home,  a  repub 
lican,  an  American  lesson.  It  has  been  brought  nigh  to 
many  a  heart,  alas,  and  many  a  home,  and  burnt  as  with  a 


284  CONCLUSION. 

red-hot  branding-iron  upon  the  memory  of  thousands,  by- 
bereavements  and  pains,  such  as  God  only  can  know,  and 
eternity  measure.  And  we  believe  that  all  the  warnings  and 
forebodings  of  the  opponents  to  the  annexation  of  Texas 
now  stand  vindicated  in  the  light  of  a  fearful  and  guilty  his 
tory.  Their  prophecy  is  now  fact.  They  predicted  a  war 
with  Mexico,  the  extension  of  slavery  and  the  slave-power, 
and  infuriate  lust  of  territory,  the  hatching  of  new  schemes 
of  war  and  plunder,  and  a  headlong  course  of  conquest  and 
aggrandizement.  We  are  deep  in  these  evils  and  their 
results,  or  waver  on  the  brink,  apparently  about  to  plunge  in 
deeper  than  ever.  If  these  things  be  so,  then  let  the  pre 
dictions  and  warnings  of  the  friends  of  peace  at  this  time 
not  fall,  Cassandra-like,  on  cold  hearts  and  insensible  con 
sciences.  But  let  every  patriot  and  Christian,  every  lover 
of  liberty  and  man,  study  what  he  can  do  to  help  stay  the 
hour  of  his  country's  danger,  and,  perhaps,  ruin.  It  profits 
little  to  sit  still  and  croak,  like  the  ill-boding  raven,  of  ills  to 
come ;  but  we  must  forth  into  the  field  of  duty,  action,  and 
influence,  and  by  voice  and  vote,  by  pen  and  purse,  by 
example  and  precept,  by  a  living  and  by  a  dying  testimony, 
whether  ours  be  the  widow's  mite  or  the  rich  man's  offering, 
the  influence  of  the  high,  or  the  word  of  the  humble,  strive, 
as  for  life,  to  arrest  the  downward  tendency  of  things,  recall 
the  promise  of  our  young  republic,  relight  the  torch  of  free 
dom,  shame  modern  degeneracy  with  the  early  doctrines  of 
our  history,  and  set  in  vivid  contrast  the  heathen  nation  we 
are  in  danger  of  becoming,  with  the  glory  of  a  true  Chris 
tian  commonwealth. 

Let,  therefore,  these  awful  lapses  in  national  virtue  only 
serve  to  arouse  to  a  more  comprehensive  and  resolute  course 
of  action  the  disciples  of  the  Prince  of  Peace.  Let  them 
thank  God  and  take  courage,  that  if  they  cannot  wholly 
extinguish  the  wide-spread  conflagration  of  war,  they  can 
yet  rescue  many  victims  from  its  fiery  passions  and  its  cor- 


CONCLUSION.  285 

rupting  moral  code.  Let  them  bear  tlieir  testimony  against 
evils,  still  too  powerful  to  be  subdued  at  once.  Let  them  see 
the  hope  and  beauty  of  a  brighter  to-morrow  symbolized  in 
the  rainbow  that  spans  the  departing  thunder-cloud.  War 
is  but  one  section  of  the  kingdom  of  Satan  that  is  doomed  to 
be  overthrown  by  the  kingdom  of  God.  There  is  as  much 
encouragement  in  laboring  to  remove  this  sin  as  any  other 
of  the  gigantic  evils  that  prey  upon  humanity.  Faith,  there 
fore,  faith  is  the  word ;  faith  vivified  and  illuminated  by 
hope  ;  faith  made  strong,  and  gentle,  and  patient  by  charity ; 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord,  the  spiritual  Governor  of 
men,  in  whose  kingdom  of  liberty,  righteousness,  and  love, 
all  nations,  races,  colors,  clans,  and  sects,  will  at  last  be  har 
monized,  and  God  shall  be  all  in  all. 

Yea,  despite  the  late  war,  despite  the  belligerent  symp 
toms  of  the  day  at  home,  despite  the  warlike  aspect  of  Chris 
tendom  abroad,  though  all  Europe  seems  to  be  turned  into 
barracks  and  camps,  and  every  country  to  be  resounding 
with  the  march  of  armies  hastening  to  the  combat,  our  just 
and  reasonable  confidence  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  the 
Gospel  of  peace  is  not  in  the  least  shaken.  The  last  thirty 
years  of  comparative  pacification  have  not  passed  in  vain. 
Darker  clouds  than  now  overhang  our  horizon,  have  in 
former  times  shut  out  the  light  of  heaven  and  hope.  If  in 
the  solid  midnight  of  sin  and  superstition,  when  the  whole 
world  lay  bound  at  the  chariot  wheels  of  a  military  despot 
ism,  Jesus  and  his  apostles  knew  that  a  better  day  was  com 
ing,  how  undying  should  be  our  faith  amid  the  breaking  of 
the  morning  light !  For  the  truth  is  great,  and  it  will  pre 
vail.  God  is  faithful,  and  his  promise  will  be  redeemed. 
The  Gospel  is  from  the  Almighty,  and  it  must  prevail  over 
man.  It  is  light  from  heaven,  and  the  darkness  of  earth 
must  flee  before  it.  Its  power  is  infinite,  and  its  obstacles 
only  finite. 

Though  for  a  season  then,  or  for  ages  its  victory  may  be 


286  CONCLUSION. 

delayed,  the  final  result  is  none  the  less  certain,  for  it  is 
guaranteed  by  Him  who  alone  is  True.  Verily,  though  the 
world  should  again  plunge  into  that  gulf  of  horrors,  called  a 
general  war;  though  Christian  nations  should  apostatize, 
and  the  churches  sink  into  corruption;  though  the  mighty 
impulses  of  philanthropy  should  fail,  and  the  missionaries  of 
the  cross  should  return  home,  and  renounce  the  sublime  hope 
of  evangelizing  the  world;  though  our  holy  faith  should 
retire  from  the  city  and  the  assembly  of  men,  and  hide  itself 
from  the  gaze  of  the  wrorld,  we  would  yet  follow  her  in  fear 
and  darkness  to  her  last  holy  retreat  on  earth,  to  the  spot, 
where  a  mother  was  kneeling  over  her  new-born  infant,  and 
offering  up  to  the  Father  of  spirits  her  thanks  and  supplica 
tions,  and  even  there  catch  a  new  inspiration  of  faith  and 
hope  for  the  revival  of  Christianity.  For  we  should  remem 
ber  the  sacred  scene,  eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  when  the 
mother  of  Bethlehem  prayed  over  the  babe  in  the  manger, 
and  blessed  her  Saviour-child ;  and  angels  from  heaven  sang 
the  anthem  of  his  birth ;  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and 
on  earth  peace,  good  will  toward  men." 


APPENDIX. 


THE    HISTORICAL    EVENTS    OP    THE    WAR. 


"  Lastly,  stood  War,  in  glittering  arms  yclad, 
With  visage  grim,  stern  look,  and  blackly  hued  ; 
In  his  right  hand  a  naked  sword  he  had, 
That  to  the  hilt  was  all  with  blood  imbrued ; 
And  in  his  left  (that  kings  and  kingdoms  rued) 
Famine  and  fire  he  held,  and  therewithal 
He  razed  towers,  and  threw  down  towers  and  all. 

"  Cities  he  sacked,  and  realms  (that  whilom  flowered 
In  honor,  glory,  and  rule  above  the  rest) 
He  overwhelmed,  and  all  their  fame  devoured, 
Consumed,  destroyed,  wasted  ;  and  never  ceased 
Till  he  their  wealth,  their  name  and  all  oppressed. 
His  face  forehewed  with  wounds  ;  and  by  his  side 
There  hung  his  targe,  with  gashes  deep  and  wide." 

THOMAS  SACKVTLLE. 


ALL  honor  to  the  hearty  old  English  Poet,  who  dared  thus,  in  a 
warlike  age,  to  unveil  the  hideous  idol  men  worshipped,  under  the 
self-contradictory  terms  of  military  glory.  lie  represents  the  god  as 
no  young  and  knightly  cavalier,  riding  forth,  splendidly  arrayed,  at 
the  sound  of  martial  music,  to  do  the  feats  of  chivalry,  and  redress 
the  wrongs  of  the  injured.  Far  truer  is  his  personification.  The 
figure  of  his  hrain,  moulded  in  a  feeling  heart,  was  that  of  a  grim 
and  ghastly  giant,  bringing  up  the  rear  of  the  procession  of  Remorse, 
Dread,  Revenge,  Misery,  Care,  Malady,  Famine,  and  Death  ;  his  face 
dark  and  stern,  and  scarred  with  wounds  5  his  hands  filled  with  the  awful 
besoms  of  destruction,  fire,  and  hunger,  and  the  sword ;  his  rent  and 
battered  shield  hanging  at  his  side  ;  and  his  path  marked  with  burning 
cities,  desolated  countries,  falling  realms,  haggard  want,  and  ruin  and 


288  APPENDIX. 

oblivion.  He  thus  wrote,  in  the  words  of  Poetry,  the  solemn  truth  of 
History.  Would  to  heaven  that  all  his  brethren  of  the  immortal  art 
had  been  equally  faithful ! 

In  recording  a  brief  sketch  of  the  events  of  the  Mexican  War,  for 
the  purpose  of  reference,  we  shall  paint  no  battle-scenes,  and  utter  no 
eulogies.  Enough  of  them  may  be  found  in  other  quarters,  to  satisfy 
the  most  morbid  appetite.  The  letter-writer,  the  biographer,  the  poli 
tician,  the  historian,  and  the  rhymster,  have  vied  with  one  another,  in 
giving  illuminated  editions  of  its  fearful  tales.  The  artist  has  painted 
the  features  of  its  heroes,  and  the  panoramas  of  its  marches  and  bat 
tles.  The  engraver  has  traced  on  wood,  and  stone,  and  steel,  the 
deadly  charge,  the  smoke  of  musketry  and  artillery,  and  the  dead  and 
dying  stretched  upon  the  bloody  earth,  with  the  Star-spangled  Banner 
leading  on  its  hosts  to  victory.  Dazzled  with  the  false  show,  and 
excited  with  the  intoxication  of  a  momentary  triumph,  men  thus  fail 
to  see  war  as  it  is,  in  all  its  heart-rending  realities  and  its  lasting  re 
sults.  It  is  a  mere  gorgeous  vision,  a  passing  dream  of  glory  to  them- 
They  do  not  look  down  into  its  abysses  of  pains  and  agonies;  its  awful 
Aceldama  of  groans,  and  tears,  and  death.  We  desire,  by  no  word  of 
ours,  to  invest  these  scenes  with  aught  but  their  own  proper  charac 
ter.  AVe  would  simply  narrate  coldly,  and  it  may  be  tamely,  the  bare 
facts. 

The  Mexican  War  dates  virtually,  though  not  actually,  from  the 
3d  of  March,  1845,  when,  by  a  Joint  Resolution,  which  was  passed  by 
both  branches  of  Congress  —  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  by  a 
vote  of  120  to  98 ;  and  in  the  Senate,  of  27  to  25  —  and  which  was  on 
that  day,  the  last  of  his  administration,  signed  by  the  President,  John 
Tyler,  Texas  was  annexed  to  the  American  Union. 

The  Mexican  Minister,  Almonte,  immediately  demanded  his  pass 
ports,  and  left  the  country ;  declaring  the  act  of  annexation  to  be  an 
act  of  hostility  to  Mexico.  Distinguished  statesmen  of  the  United 
States  also  took  the  same  view  of  the  subject. 

But  Mexico  was  poor,  distracted,  and  revolutionary,  and  she  had  no 
means  to  vindicate  what  she  regarded  as  her  violated  honor.  The  act 
of  war  did  not  follow.  She  contented  herself  with  protesting. 

The  United  States,  however,  were  not  idle.  In  August,  1845,*  Gen. 
Taylor  was  despatched,  with  a  regular  body  of  troops,  drawn  from 
different  posts,  —  first  as  an  army  of  "  Observation,"  then  of  "  Occupa 
tion,"  —  to  the  town  of  Corpus  Christi. 


'  80th  Congress,  1st  Sessiou,  House  of  Representatives,  Ex.  Doc.  60,  p.  101. 


HISTORICAL    EVENTS    OF    THE    WAR.  289 

But  on  the  13th  of  January,  184G.  Mr.  Marcy,  Secretary  of  War  of 
the  United  States,  wrote  to  Gen.  Taylor,  as  follows:*  "I  am  directed, 
by  the  President,  to  instruct  you  to  advance  and  occupy,  with  the 
troops  under  your  command,  positions  on  or  near  the  east  bank  of  the 

Rio  del  Norte,  as  soon  as  it  can  be  conveniently  done 

It  is  not  designed,  in  our  present  relations  with  Mexico,  that  you. 
should  treat  her  as  an  enemy ;  but  should  she  assume  that  character, 
by  a  declaration  of  war,  or  any  open  act  of  hostility  towards  us,  you 
will  not  act  merely  on  the  defensive.'''  Gen.  Taylor  obeyed  orders.  He 
received  the  letter  early  in  February,  and,  on  the  llth  of  March,  he 
commenced  his  march  from  Corpus  Christi  for  the  Rio  Grande,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  distant,  across  a  desert,  or  rolling  prairie.  On 
the  20th  of  the  same  month  he  was  met,  at  the  river  Colorado,  by  the 
Mexicans,  whose  commanding  officer,  Gen.  Mejia,  announced,  that 
if  the  American  forces  should  cross  that  river,  it  would  be  considered 
as  a  declaration  of  war,  and  actual  hostilities  would  ensue.t  But  the 
warning  was  disregarded,  and  the  troops  pursued  their  way,  and 
arrived  on  the  banks  of  the  Rio  Grande  without  any  serious  molesta 
tion.  Repeated  remonstrances  were  made  by  the  authorities,  both 
civil  and  military,  to  the  American  commander,  against  the  occu 
pation  of  what  they  regarded  as  a  part  of  the  Mexican  province  of 
Tamaulipas.  They  declared  the  alternative  of  his  withdrawal  to  the 
Nueccs  or  Avar.  But  Taylor  remained,  and  erected  Fort  Brown,  on 
the  left  bank  of  the  Rio  Grande,  commanding  the  city  of  Matamoras 
on  the  other  side.  Several  skirmishes  took  place  between  parties  of 
the  two  nations,  in  which  lives  were  lost.  Fort  Brown,  and  a  small 
force  left  to  keep  possession  of  it,  were  bombarded,  during  the  absence 
of  the  commander-in-chief  and  his  main  army,  to  obtain  his  mili 
tary  stores,  which  had  been  landed  at  Point  Isabel ;  but  the  Americans 
maintained  their  position,  though  summoned  to  surrender. 

On  his  return  from  Point  Isabel,  Gen.  Taylor  was  met  by  the  Mex 
ican  army,  under  the  command  of  Gen.  Arista,  at  a  point  on  the  prai 
ries,  a  few  miles  from  the  Rio  Grande,  called  Pah  Alto,  which  is  dis 
tinguished,  as  giving  a  name  to  the  first  battlq  of  the  Avar.  The  con 
test  occurred  on  the  8th  of  May,  1846,  commencing  at  about  two 
o'clock,  P.  M. ;  and  was  sustained  during  five  hours,  when  the  Mex 
icans  were  defeated,  with  great  loss  in  killed  and  wounded.  The 

*  30th  Congress,  1st  Session,  House  of  Representatives,  Ex.  Doc.  60,  pp.  90,  91. 
Also,  for  the  war-despatches  in.  general,  sec  30th  Congress,  1st  Session,  House  of  Re 
presentatives,  Ex.  Doc.  CO.  Senate,  Ex.  Doc.  1.  GOth  Coi:grc?s,  2d  Session,  House  of 
Representatives,  Ex.  Doc.  1. 

t  30th  Congress,  1st  Session,  House  of  Representatives,  Ex.  Doc.  60,  pp.  145, 146. 

25 


290  APPENDIX. 

Americans  numbered  2,300,  according  to  the  report  of  their  general ; 
•while  he  says  "  the  strength  of  the  enemy  is  believed  to  have  been 
about  6,000  men." 

On  the  following  day,-  May  9th,  Gen.  Taylor  advanced  two  or  three 
miles  along  the  road  through  the  chapparal,  towards  the  Rio  Grande, 
when  he  found  the  enemy  in  position  for  battle,  at  a  ravine  called 
Resaca  de  la  Palma.  The  action  commenced  about  four  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon,  and  lasted  one  hour  and  a  half  j  when  the  Mexicans,  under 
the  command  of  Arista,  were  entirely  routed  and  pursued  to  the  river, 
in  which  multitudes  were  drowned,  in  attempting  to  cross  to  Mata- 
moras. 

The  immediate  result  of  these  victories  was  the  capture,  without 
resistance,  of  the  city  of  Matamoras,  and  the  opening  of  the  whole 
Valley  of  the  Bio  Grande  to  the  American  arms.  The  forces  of  the 
enemy  were  dispersed,  and,  to  use  the  military  phrase,  demoralized. 
The  reverses  of  Palo  Alto  and  Resaca  de  la  Palma  had  sent  dismay 
through  the  country.  In  the  course  of  the  summer  Gen.  Taylor  occu 
pied,  without  any  difficulty,  the  towns  of  Reynosa,  Camargo,  Mier,  and 
Ceralvo,  and  advanced  upon  Monterey. 

In  the  meantime,  advices  had  been  received  at  Washington  of  the 
critical  situation  of  Gen.  Taylor,  about  the  1st  of  May;  and  the  Presi 
dent,  in  a  Message  to  Congress,  dated  the  llth  of  that  month,  used 
the  following  language  :  *  "  But  now,  after  reiterated  menaces,  Mexico 
has  passed  the  boundary  of  the  United  States,  has  invaded  our  terri 
tory,  and  shed  American  blood  upon  American  soil.  She  has  pro 
claimed  that  hostilities  have  commenced,  and  that  the  two  nations  are 
now  at  war." 

"  As  war  exists,  and,  notwithstanding  our  efforts  to  avoid  it,  exists 
by  the  act  of  Mexico  herself,  we  are  called  upon,  by  every  considera 
tion  of  duty  arid  patriotism,  to  vindicate,  with  decision,  the  honor,  the 
rights  and  the  interests  of  our  country." 

On  the  same  day,  a  bill  passed  the  House  of  Representatives,  174 
to  14,  and,  on  the  subsequent  one,  was  enacted  by  the  Senate,  42  to  2. 
declaring,  that,  "by  the  acts  of  the  Republic  of  Mexico,  a  state  of  war 
exists  between  the  United  States  and  that  republic  ;  "  placing  ten  mil 
lions  of  dollars  at  the  disposal  of  the  President  ;  and  authorizing  him 
to  employ  the  land  and  naval  forces  of  the  United  States,  and  to  ac 
cept  the  services  of  volunteers,  to  a  number  not  exceeding  50,000,  in 

*  30th  Congress,  1st  Session,  House  of  Representatives,  Ex.  Doc.  CO,  pp.  8,  9. 


HISTORICAL    EVENTS    OF    THE    WAR.  291 

prosecuting  the  war.  On  the  13th  of  May,  1846,  a  Proclamation  of 
War  was  issued  by  the  highest  executive  authority. 

A  warlike  enthusiasm  ran,  like  wild-fire,  over  the  Western,  South 
western,  and  Southern  sections  of  the  country,  and,  in  many  in 
stances,  the  number  of  volunteers,  said  to  be  300,000  in  all,  was 
far  greater  than  could  be  mustered  into  service,  according  to  the  gene 
ral  appropriation  of  the  respective  States.*  The  Great  Valley  re 
sounded  with  the  din  of  preparation.  Fathers  and  sons  enlisted. 
Some  of  more  than  the  allotted  age  of  man,  seized  the  musket.  More 
than  one  of  the  ministers  of  the  Prince  of  Peace  caught  the  dangerous 
contagion.  The  latent  passions  of  the  heart  took  fire,  like  tinder,  at  the 
cry  of  war. 

In  such  popular  excitements  men  do  not  reason,  they  only  feel,  and, 
feeling,  act.  Thus  impelled,  they  may  do  the  noblest  deeds  ;  they  may 
also  perpetrate  the  most  wicked  crimes,  and  set  in  motion  the  most 
irretrievable  calamities.  The  call  to  arms  is  the  occasion,  of  all  others, 
when  human  beings  seem  to  lay  aside  the  more  manly  and  Christian 
attributes  of  character,  and  put  on  those  of  the  beast  of  prey,  or 
worse.  But  it  is  necessary  also  to  admit,  that  a  leaven  of  wdft-inten- 
tioned,  though  often  mistaken  patriotism,  mingles  with  the  dark  mass 
of  animal  and  demoniac  passions.  A  wild  love  of  adventure,  without 
reference  to  the  innocence  or  guilt  of  the  objects  to  which  it  is  directed, 
also  carries  away  the  settlers  in  a  new  state  of  society,  as  with  a  flood. 
Add  some  anticipations  of  booty ;  some  old  grudges  of  Santa  F6,  and 
other  border  traders ;  some  Texan  vengeance,  for  the  massacres  of 
Goliad  and  the  Alamo ;  some  ideas  of  Anglo-Saxon  destiny ;  some 
hope  of  distinction,  and  desire  of  bettering  perhaps  desperate  fortunes  ; 
and  we  have  glimpses  of  the  more  prominent  elements  that  moulded 
thousands  to  one  purpose,  and  precipitated  them  upon  a  second  "  con 
quest  of  Mexico." 

The  means,  however,  of  transporting  the  troops  to  the  theatre  of 
action,  were  not  sufficient  to  enable  the  American  commander  to 
advance  rapidly  into  the  enemy's  country.  About  9,000  men  only 
were  under  the  command  of  Gen.  Taylor,  in  the  beginning  of  June ; 
and  he  assaulted  Monterey,  the  capital  of  Nucvo  Leon,  about  three 
hundred  and  forty  miles  from  Matamoi-as,  with  less  than  7,000.  On 
the  19th  of  September,  1846,  he  appeared  before  that  city,  and  invested 
it.  Active  operations  were  carried  on  during  Sunday,  the  20th,  21st, 
22cl,  and  23d ;  and  on  the  24th,  the  Mexican  commander,  Gen.  Am- 
pudia,  surrendered. 

*  Young's  History  of  Mexico,  p.  380. 


292  APPENDIX. 

Santa  Anta  returned  from  the  West  Indies  to  Vera  Cruz,*  and  on  the 
15th  of  September,  184G,  lie  reentered  the  capital,  from  which  he  had 
been  driven  into  exile,  and  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  Mexican 
armies.  He  infused  new  resolution  into  his  countrymen,  after  all  their 
reverses,  and  assembled  an  army  of  more  than  20,000  men,  called  the 
"  Liberating  Army  of  the  North,"  to  oppose  Gen.  Taylor.  He  contri 
buted  largely,  of  his  own  pi'ivate  property,  to  furnish  supplies  to  his 
troops,  and  was  engaged  for  months  in  equipping,  drilling,  and  organ 
izing  the  different  corps  of  his  forces,  at  San  Luis  Potosi. 

In  the  autumn,  Gen.  Taylor  advanced  bodies  of  troops  to  Saltillo, 
sixty-five  miles  from  Monterey  ;  while  Gen.  Wool  marched  an  army 
of  2,400  over  the  Rio  Grande,  at  the  Presidio  del  Norte,  and  occupied 
Monclova,  and  subsequently  Parras.  Gen.  Quirman  captured  the  town 
of  Victoria.  In  fact,  the  northern  frontier  of  Mexico,  upon  the  Rio 
Grande,  was  in  the  complete  possession  of  the  Americans. 

But  the  Mexican  commander-in-chief  determined  to  strike  a  deci 
sive  blow  against  the  invaders  of  his  country ;  and,  on  the  22d  and 
23d  of  February,  1847,  he  met  Gen.  Taylor  in  the  valley  of  Buena 
Vista,  (beautiful  sight,)  six  miles  south  of  Saltillo,  with  troops,  as  he 
stated  in  his  challenge  to  surrender,  amounting  to  20,000  men.  After 
a  terrible  and  sanguinary  battle,  fought  two  days,  the  Americans  again 
won  a  complete  victory,  at  a  fearful  cost  of  life. 

The  Mexicans  retreated  in  great  disorder,  during  the  night  after  the 
battle,  and  the  late  formidable  army  was  wholly  disorganized  and 
scattered.  The  route,  by  which  they  retired,  was  strewed  with  the 
dead  and  dying.  Santa  Anna  returned  to  the  city  of  Mexico,  and 
Gen.  Taylor  reoccupicd  his  -former  positions,  and  advanced  as  far  as 
to  Encarnacion.  No  victory  could  be  more  decisive  in  its  results. 

With  the  exception  of  guerilla  skirmishes,  no  other  battles  were 
fought  by  Gen.  Taylor  except  the  four  successful  ones  of  Palo  Alto, 
Resaca  de  la  Palma,  Monterey,  and  Buena  Vista.  He  urged  upon  tho 
Mexican  Government  from  time  to  time  the  question  of  peace,  but 
they  persisted  in  declaring  that  as  long  as  a  single  invader  had  his  foot 
upon  their  soil,  they  scorned  the  proposal.  "  Say  to  General  Taylor," 
said  Santa  Anna,  when  the  subject  was  communicated  to  him  after  the 

*  The  following  pass  gave  him  admission  into  Mexico  : 

"  U.  S.  Navy  Department,  May  13, 184G. 

"COMMODORE  —  If  Santa  Anna  endeavors  to  enter  the  Mexican  ports,  you  will 
allow  him  to  pass  freely. 

"  Respectfully  yours,          _  GEORGE  BANCROFT. 

"  Commodore  David  Counor,  Commanding  Home 


HISTORICAL    EVENTS    OP   THE    WAR.  293 

battle  of  Buena  Vista,  "  that  we  sustain  tlie  most  sacred  of  causes,  — 
the  defence  of  our  territory,  and  the  preservation  of  our  nationality  and 
rights ;  that  we  are  not  the  aggressors  ;  and  that  our  Government  has 
never  offended  that  of  the  United  States.  We  can  say  nothing  of 
peace  while  the  Americans  are  on  this  side  of  the  Rio  Bravo  del  Norte, 
or  occupy  any  part  of  the  Mexican  territory,  or  blockade  our  ports. 
We  are  resolved  to  perish  or  vindicate  onr  rights." 

After  this  necessarily  brief  and  imperfect  sketch  of  the  operations  of 
what  was  at  first  called  "  the  Army  of  Observation,"  then  "  the  Army 
of  Occupation,"  and  what  finally  became,  with  a  significant  title,  the 
Army  of  "  Invasion,"*  let  us  turn  to  view  another  part  of  the  field 
of  Avar. 

It  had  been  proposed  soon  after  the  war  broke  out,  to  invade  Mexico 
at  three  different  points,  and  thus  divide  and  distract  her  forces.  The 
main  army,  under  Gen.  Taylor,  was  to  advance  from  the  Rio  Grande 
towards  San  Luis  Potosi ;  a  second  smaller  division,  called  "  the  Army 
of  the  Centre,"  under  Gen.  Wool,  was  to  march  from  Bexar,  in  Texas, 
upon  Chihuahua,  the  results  of  both  of  which  movements  have  already 
been  given.  But  a  third  expedition,  to  be  called  "  the  Army  of  the 
West,"  was  to  proceed  from  Missouri,  cross  the  plains,  occupy  New 
Mexico,  hold  its  capital,  Santa  Fe,  and  after  that  was  achieved,  a  por 
tion  of  the  same  troops  was  to  occupy  California. 

On  the  30th  of  June,  1846,  Gen.  Samuel  W.  Kearney  led  the  Army 
of  the  AVest  from  Fort  Leavenworth,  situated  on  the  river  Missouri,  and 
after  a  march  of  890  miles,  took  possession  of  Santa  Fe,  without  re 
sistance,  on  the  18th  of  August,  1846.  On  the  25th  of  September, 
after  making  provision  for  a  temporary  government  of  New  Mexico,  he 
took  300  dragoons,  and  marched  on  the  route  to  California.  Learning 
on  the  way  that  that  territory  had  been  brought  under  the  flag  of  the 
United  States  by  Commodore  Stockton  and  Lieut.-Colonel  Fremont, 
after  some  severe  skirmishes  with  the  enemy,  he  left  -200  of  his  troops 
in  New  Mexico,  and  with  the  remainder  he  marched  1,050  miles  to 
San  Diego,  near  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Several  conflicts  occurred  with 
the  enemy,  in  which  a  considerable  number  were  killed  and  wounded 
on  both  sides.  But  victory  attended  the  American  arms  in  most  in 
stances,  and  the  territory  was  hopelessly  subdued. 

Of  the  troops  left  behind  in  New  Mexico,  and  augmented  by  rein 
forcements  from  the  States,  one  portion  was  under  the  command  of 
Col.  S.  Price,  and  the  remainder  under  that  of  Col.  A.  W.  Doniphan. 

*  See  Appendix  to  Hon.  J.  II.  Crozier's  speech,  delivered  in  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  Jan.  21, 1847. 

25* 


294  APPENDIX. 

On  the  19th  of  January,  1847,  the  Mexicans  and  Indians  revolted 
against  Gov.  Bent  of  this  territory,  and  put  him  and  his  followers,  to 
the  number  of  fifteen,  to  death.  Col.  Price,  with  a  body  of  353  men, 
met  the  enemy  at  the  town  of  Canada,  on  Sunday,  Jan.  24,  1847,  and 
dispersed  them.  A  detachment  of  the  same  troops,  under  Capt.  Burg- 
win,  engaged  and  conquered  the  enemy  on  Jan.  29th,  at  the  pass  of 
Embudo.  On  Feb.  3d  and  4th,  Col.  Price  besieged  a  stronghold  of  the 
insurgents,  called  Pueblo  de  Taos,  defended  by  600  or  700  men,  and 
took  it  after  a  severe  contest. 

The  other  section  of  Gen.  Kearney's  army,  856  mounted  riflemen, 
under  the  command  of  Col.  Doniphan,  left  Santa  Fe  on  the  26th  of 
October,  1846,  and  traversed  New  Mexico,  Chihuahua,  Durango,  and 
'New  Leon.  At  Bracito,  in  New  Mexico,  on  Dec.  25,  1846,  on  Christ 
mas  Day,  the  Colonel,  with  about  500  of  his  troops,  met  and  defeated 
1,220  Mexicans.  The  battle  of  Sacramento,  in  Chihuahua,  was  fought 
on  Sunday,  Feb.  28,  1847.  After  a  bloody  encounter  of  three  hours 
and  a  half,  the  Mexicans  fled. 

The  following  is  a  short  summary  of  the  naval  operations  carried  on 
in  the  meantime  against  Mexico.  On  the  1 8th  of  May,  1846,  the  Amer 
ican  squadron  under  the  flag  of  Commodore  Conner,  consisting  of  fivo 
ships  of  war,  blockaded  Vera  Cruz,  and  one  sloop  of  war  was  stationed 
off  Tampico.  On  the  14th  of  November,  Commodore  Conner  took  pos 
session  of  the  latter  port  without  firing  a  gun.  Previously  to  this,  Com 
modore  Perry  ascended  the  river  Tobasco  seventy-four  miles  with  seve 
ral  vessels,  and  on  Sunday,  Oct.  25th,  he  anchored  opposite  the  town  of 
the  same  name,  and  summoned  it  to  surrender.  On  the  succeeding 
day  the  town  was  severely  cannonaded,  and  nearly  demolished. 

Several  other  ports  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Mexico,  Tuspan,  Alva- 
rado,  Panuco,  were  occupied  by  the  Americans,  and  many  vessels  were 
captured.  In  fact,  the  naval  power  of  the  enemy  was  annihilated. 

On  the  Pacific,  Commodore  Sloat  occupied  Monterey,  the  capital  of 
Upper  California,  on  the  7th  of  July,  1846,  and  announced  by  pro 
clamation  to  the  inhabitants  that  "  henceforward  California  will  be  a 
portion  of  the  United  States,  and  promised  that  all  the  peaceable  in 
habitants  should  enjoy  the  same  rights,  privileges,  and  protection,  as  the 
'o+her  citizens  of  the  republic."  But  in  the  course  of  the  following  win 
ter,  1846*--7.  the  Califomians  rose  and  offered  resistance  to  their  in 
vaders,  which  wa3  suppressed  by  Col.  Fremont  with  a  handful  of  sol 
diers,  and  by  Commodore  Stockton  with  a  detachment  from  his  fleet, 
and  subsequently  by  Gen.  Kearney,  as  before  related. 

The  principal  operations  of  the  naval  force  in  the  war  had  thus  far 


HISTORICAL    EVENTS    OF    THE    WAR.  295 

been  on  land,  or  against  ports  and  towns  capable  of  being  reached  by 
vessels  at  anchor,  with  the  exception  of  the  service  of  transporting 
troops  from  the  United  States  to  the  scene  of  action.  But  a  new  the 
atre  of  greater  importance,  though  of  similar  character  was  opened  by 
the  siege  of  Vcra  Cruz. 

Mexico  had  bceh  repeatedly  solicited,  after  the  various  successful 
movements  which  have  been  described,  to  enter  into  negotiations  of 
peace,  but  she  would  hearken  to  no  terms  whatever  while  her  soil  was 
covered  with  hostile  forces.  Her  noble  motto  was,  ''  The  integrity  of 
the  national  territory."  The  next  step  accordingly  was,  to  carry 
the  war  more  into  "  the  vitals "  of  the  country,  and  to  "  conquer  a, 
peace  "  by  conquering  the  capital  of  the  republic.  A  campaign  was 
therefore  entered  upon  by  Gen.  Winfield  Scott,  senior  officer  of  the 
regular  army  of  the  United  States,  in  the  early  part  of  1847.  The 
plan  was  to  capture  Vcra  Cruz,  the  principal  sea-port,  make  that  the 
base  of  operations,  advance  into  the  interior  by  the  great  line  of  com 
munication,  and  take  the  city  of  Mexico,  situated  in  the  heart  of  the 
country,  about  350  miles  from  the  gulf  of  the  same  name. 

Vera  Cruz  and  the  Castle  of  San  Juan  d'Ulloa  were  invested  by  land 
and  sea  with  the  American  forces  under  the  direction  of  Gen.  Scott  and 
Commodore  Perry,  in  March,  1847  ;  and  on  Monday  the  22nd  of  that 
month,  after  a  summons  to  surrender  had  been  offered  and  rejected, 
the  batteries  were  opened  upon  the  city.  The  inhabitants  were  in  num 
ber  about  4,000  or  5,000,  besides  the  families  of  the  foreign  consuls,  who 
had  not  taken  advantage  of  the  permission  granted  them  by  Gen.  Scott 
to  retire  from  the  scene  of  danger.  A  terrible  carnage  ensued  among 
the  people  from  the  heavy  metal  and  the  fatal  accuracy  of  the  Amer 
ican  gunners.  It  was  computed  that  6.700  shot  and  shell  were  thrown, 
weighing  463,000  pounds,  in  four  days.  On  the  26th,  Gen.  Landcro, 
commanding  officer  of  the  place,  made  overtures  for  a  capitulation. 
The  awful  desolation  that  reigned  over  the  devoted  city  counselled 
submission.  The  terms  of  capitulation  were  signed  on  the  27th,  exe 
cuted  on  the  29th,  and  possession  given  of  both  the  town  and  the  al 
most  impregnable  castle. 

The  next  principal  engagement  took  place  on  the  heights  of  Cerro 
Gordo,  fifty  miles  from  Vera  Cruz,  on  Saturday  and  Sunday,  April 
17th  and  18th,  between  Gen.  Scott  and  Gen.  Santa  Anna,  in  which  the 
latter  was  entirely  defeated,  and  narrowly  escaped  being  taken  prison 
er  as  he  fled  from  the  field. 

On  the  15th  of  May,  the  city  of  Puebla,  eighty  miles  from  Perote, 
on  the  route  to  Mexico,  was  taken  without  opposition.  During  the 


296 


APPENDIX. 


summer,  reinforcements  of  men  find  arms  were  accumulated  by  Gen. 
Scott  at  Puebla,  at  which  place,  leaving  a  competent  garrison,  he  began 
his  march  toward  the  capital,  the  17th  of  August,  1847,  a  distance  of 
from  100  to  120  miles. 

On  the  19th  and  20th  of  August,  the  successive  actions  of  Contreras, 
San  Antonio,  and  Churabusco,  were  fought  in  the  Valley  of  Mexico, 
and  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the  capital.  In  all  these  battles 
the  usual  rule  held  good,  and  the  victory  was  won  by  the  Americans. 

After  these  engagements  an  armistice  was  agreed  upon,  and  nego 
tiations  for  peace  were  entered  into  by  N.  P.  Trist,  Commissioner  on 
the  part  of  the  Executive  of  the  United  States,  and  Commissioners  on 
the  part  of  Mexico.  But  they  were  ineffectual,  and  the  law  of  force 
was  again  resorted  to  instead  of  the  law  of  reason.  The  ultimatum  of 
boundaries  was  understood  to  be  the  rock  on  which  this  new  attempt 
at  peace  was  wrecked. 

The  armistice  was  thrown -up,  and  the  battle  of  El  Molino  del  Rey, 
or  King's  Mill,  was  fought  on  Sept.  8,  1847. 

On  Sunday,  Monday,  and  Tuesday,  Sept.  12th,  13th,  and  14th,  the 
strong  fortress  of  Chapultepec,  outside  of  the  city,  was  cannonaded, 
stormed,  and  carried,  the  defences  at  the  gates  assaulted  and  captured, 
and  early  on  the  morning  of  the  14th,  the  city  surrendered  to  Gen. 
Scott.  The  operations  consisted  of  a  succession  of  assaults  and  en 
gagements  from  point  to  point,  and  from  one  battery  to  another,  until, 
by  the  skill  and  the  fierce  bravery  of  the  American  troops,  the  object  of 
their  ambition  was  attained,  and  they  entered  "  the  halls  of  Monte- 
zuma."  But  victory  was  bought  at  a  costly  sacrifice.  A  scattering 
fire  by  Icperos,  —  criminals  set  free  from  prison,  and  disbanded  soldiers, 
from  the  streets  and  houses,  was  kept  up  on  the  troops  after  the  city 
was  surrendered,  in  which  many  lives  were  lost,  but  which  was  finally 
suppressed  by  severe  measures.  The  destruction  of  limb  and  life 
during  these  fatal  days  on  the  part  of  the  Mexicans  never  Avas  pre 
cisely  known,  but  it  must  have  been  immense.  The  accuracy  of  the 
American  aim,  both  of  infantry  and  artillery,  always  told  upon  the 
crowded  masses  of  the  enemy  with  terrible  effect. 

Meanwhile,  there  were  other  engagements  which  form  a  part  of  the 
historical  survey  of  the  war.  Major  Lally,  conducting  about  1.000  men 
from  Vera  Cruz  to  Jalapa,  was  beset  at  different  points  in  his  inarch 
by  numerous  guerilla  forces,  on  Aug.  10th,  12th,  Sunday  15th,  and 
19th,  but  reached  his  destination,  and  retook  possession  of  Jalapa, 
which  had  been  vacated  by  Gen.  Scott  in  his  advance  to  the  capital. 
The  Mexican  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  was  very  great. 


HISTORICAL    EVENTS    OF    THE    AVAK.  297 

A  garrison  had  been  loft  at  Puebla.  with  1,800  sick  in  tlic  Hospitals, 
under  the  command  of  Col.  Childs.  A  close  investment  and  assault 
were  maintained  by  the  Mexicans  during  twenty-eight  days,  from  Sept- 
13th  until  the  American  troops  were  relieved  by  the  arrival  of  Gen. 
Lane  with  2,000  troops  from  Vera  Cruz.  Santa  Anna,  Hying  from  the 
conquerors  of  the  capital,  conducted  operations  with  large  reinforce 
ments  during  the  latter  part  of  the  siege,  but  was  unable  to  force 
capitulation. 

On  Oct.  9th,  Gen  Lane  had  an  engagement  with  Gen.  Santa  Anna 
at  Huamantla. 

The  town  of  Alixco,  a  resort  of  guerillas,  was  bombarded  and  taken 
by  Gen.  Lane  on  Oct.  19th. 

On  the  IGth  of  March,  1848,  Gen.  Price  fought  a  battle  in  the  town 
of  Santa  Cruz  de  Rozales,  belonging  to  the  province  of  Chihuahua, 
and  about  sixty  miles  south  of  the  capital  of  the  same  name,  against 
Gen.  Angel  Trias,  defeated  him,  and  took  him  and  his  troops  prisoners. 

Other  inconsiderable  affairs  with  bands  of  the  Mexicans  occurred  in 
various  quarters  of  the  country,  but  not  of  suiHcient  moment  to  be 
recorded  in  this  dark  calendar  of  misery  and  death.  In  another  con 
nection  a  statement  has  been  made  of  the  mortality  of  the  war. 

During  the  autumn  of  1847,  Gen.  Scott  was  largely  reinforced  by 
troops  from  other  garrisons  in  Mexico,  and  by  regulars  and  volunteers 
from  home,  until  his  army  exceeded  20,000  men.  He  retained  pos 
session  of  the  capital  until  negotiations  of  peace  were  concluded  be 
tween  N.  P.  Trist,  late  Commissioner  on  the  side  of  the  United  States, 
but  not  at  that  time  authorized  to  act  in  that  capacity,  and  Commis 
sioners  on  the  part  of  Mexico.  The  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo  was 
finally  signed  by  the  parties,  Feb.  2,  1848,  and  ratified  with  amend 
ments  by  the  American  Senate,  and  signed  by  the  President,  March 
10th.  It  was  then  returned  to  the  Congress,  and  finally  accepted  by 
that  body  on  May  25th,  and  ratified  at  Queretaro,  by  Ambrose  II. 
Sevier  and  Nathan  Clifford,  Commissioners  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States,  and  Luis  de  la  Rosa,  Minister  of  Relations  of  the  Mexican. 
Republic,  on  the  part  of  that  Government.  During  the  month  of 
June,  the  capital  and  country  of  Mexico  were  generally  evacuated  by 
the  American  troops,  and  the  blockade  of  the  Mexican  ports  raised. 

In  concluding  this  imperfect  historical  sketch,  it  is  only  necessary 
to  state  that  the  facts  have  been  mainly  derived  from  the  official  docu 
ments  relating  to  the  war,  published  under  the  authority  of  the  Con 
gress  of  the  United  States.  The  inferences  and  uses  to  be  drawn  from 
these  facts  have  occupied  preceding  pages  of  this,  review.  But  we  can 


310  APPENDIX. 

only  pause  here  a  moment  to  remark,  how  awful  is  the  simplest  record 
of  war!  How  much  of  all  that  is  most  horrible  in  pain,  and  sickness, 
and  loss  of  character,  and  ruin  of  "  body,  mind,  or  estate,"  is  compre 
hended  under  the  bald  and  dry  statistics  of  marchings,  fightings,  sieges, 
and  conquests  !  If  all  this  operation  be  glory,  then,  in  the  name  of 
heaven  and  humanity,  we  ask  what  is  shame  ?  If  this  be  a  work  for 
which  we  should  applaud,  honor,  and  reward  the  actors,  then  for  what 
deeds,  in  the  range  of  possibility,  should  we  condemn  and  execrate 
them? 

"  First,  Envy,  eldest  born  of  hell,  imbrued 
Her  hands  in  blood,  and  taught  the  sons  of  men 
To  make  a  death  which  nature  never  made, 
And  God  abhorred.        *        *        * 

One  murder  made  a  villain, 
Millions  a  hero.     Princes  assumed  a  right 
To  kill ;  did  numbers  sanctify  the  crime  ?"* 

*  Bishop  Porteus's  Poem  on  "  Death." 


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